So yesterday, I was leaving work and as I pulled out of the parking space, I heard a "Clank" but didn't pay much attention as I thought it may have been someone in the shop beating on something. Well as I go to pull out of the parking lot I felt the truck shimmying as I was coming up to speed, but if I pressed the clutch the shimmy went away. I pulled over and got out and looked at everything, and noticed that the pinion seal is bad on the front diff and leaking a little. I immediately crawled under there and checked the level of the fluid by removing the fill plug. The fluid was still up to the fill plug so I hadnt lost much. The fluid level in the rear is good as well, I just changed this about 5000 miles ago. The front hubs were locked from when I used them last so I unlocked them and tried to drive again. After unlocking the front hubs the truck drove alot better but still has a slight shimmy when accelerating. I know that I need to pop the diff covers off front and back to check everything just haven't had time. Anything else I need to look at to figure out why my truck is shimmying? I am hoping that I haven't broke a tooth in the front or rear

Sorry for such a long post

Thanks in advance

 

You need to determine if the shimmy is related to engine RPM, or road speed.

This will help determine where th vibration is coming from.

 

The shimmy stops after I reach cruising speed. It only shimmys between 0-30

 

I was going to change the fluid in the front differential. So I drove the truck around for a few minutes and when I got back on my road I shifted it into 4wd and heard all kinds of grinding and crunching like metal on metal. IT DIDN'T SOUND GOOD. So I immediately shifted out of 4wd and continued home. I drained the fluid and ran a magnet through the fluid and found slivers and chunks of metal in the drain bucket. again not good!! I went to the parts house to get the pinion seal that I had called about and they didnt have it. So my truck is stuck till thursday. My question is, Can I remove the front driveshaft and drive the truck?? The front diff has no fluid in it. If the front hubs are locked in then the gears shouldnt turn. Can I do this?

 

NO!!! sorry you cant the front hubs locked will not turn the spider gears but will spin the ring and pinion. even if you unlocked the hubs they still may stick and turn somthing. As a machanic i would say not driveable at all.

If it were my rig and i really needed to take a short trip i would remove the hubs(if the are manul) and drive "hub free" to make sure they were not going to engage/stuck engaged. With auto hubs you risk an o-ring so i would not remove the hub.

Did you pull the pan to check the ring gear?

EDIT: Where the hubs engaged when you put it into 4x4? you have a six speed so you have floor shift t-case? or ESOF?

 

Yes the hubs were engaged when I shifted into 4x4. I do have esof. So my truck should stay parked until I have the pinion seal