I posted this in another forum and got no replies... mabie someone here can help

i have a 99 ranger xlt 4x4 4.0l v6 (completely stock)

ok... yesterday i was driving down the road and i turned into a parkinglot to turn around.everything was fine... when i started to turn around i heard a large clanking sound...i was like !!!??? so anyways i was like whatever so i kept driving and as i kept driving the rear left side started to hop.. it was fine going strait, but when i strt to turn it hops.. i also found it makes the clanking sound when when i shift from drive to reverse and vise versa...if you have any ideas of what it might be it would be great.

 

As for the hopping while turning, it could be that your rear end is a limited slip axle and needs to have some "friction modifier" put in there.

Might be a good time to drain and fill the rear diff while you are at it.

 

Your not going to want to hear this but here's my 2 cents. Most likely you have a broken gear or gears back there. The clunk is from the slack caused by either extreme wear or broken parts. Since you said it hopps going around corners, my assumption is that the broken parts are interferring with the differential spider gears causing it to lock up. Not like lock up stop, lock up like a detroit locker. If this came on out of the blue, I think its a safe bet it's not the limited slip if you have one. Pull the rear differential cover off and look just to be sure. Gaskets are cheap and so is gear oil. If you have metal shavings or chunks you have problems and you need to change gears. Hope that helps.

RubberDuck

P.S. Try to think back, did the truck get air born under hard acceleration? Spinning the tires from dirt to pavement?etc. etc.

 

thanks alot!.. if it is the gears or the limited slip it should still be covered by the warentee..

also, i have had the tires spin from dirt to pavement before

 

Check out the links in the tech info post about slip yoke lub and thump/clunk for the noise when shifting from drive to reverse.

 

clunking when putting it in gear could be bad U-Joints.

 

RubberDuck was right.. borken gear(s)... good thing is that its covered by the warentee so all i gotta pay is $50

 

You broke an axle by just turning around?

 

a gear.. dont know how kinda weird