Hi folks,

I have a 96 7.3 E350, Quigley 4x4 converted. Relevant details to the situation that I can think of are that I bought the van used at about 128k miles and we have about 143k on it now. Generally in pretty good shape but a steady string of mechanical problems is starting to make me ponder having sold a Toyota pickup to buy a Ford van.

In any case, we had the E40D rebuilt by a purportedly good rebuilder with more or less all of the available upgrades/better parts, and we had the rear diff gearset and half axles replaced (still a posi though I don't recall the specs/brand of the parts).

Everything has seemed bulletproof on the drivetrain, but a couple days ago, while grinding up a good, smooth, but very steep dirt road in 2H, at about 15mph in the top of 1st gear, we heard a grinding/vibrating noise that seemed to be associated with a reduction in power. The noise seemed to come from the rear of the van, I'm guessing the transfer case or the rear diff. It didn't seem to come from the transmission. Natural instinct was to let off the gas and the noise went away instantly. Troubling and a head scratcher. This repeated two more times pulling this hill - brief bursts of this grinding/vibrating noise, seemingly with power reduction, but I instantly let off the gas and it went away each time. The following day we had another good hill to go up (basically the same hill), and I put it in 4WD even though traction wasn't necessary, my thinking being that 4WD would reduce the strain on the rear half of the drivetrain. We had no problems while in 4WD, including pushing it a bit to try to reproduce.

I'm no mechanic and didn't have a mechanic along of course, and I can't imagine a bunch of internet troubleshooting will tell me what is wrong. But what would folks do in this situation? I am going to see if I can pull any transmission codes, but what else? Hope it doesn't happen again? Be prepared for a tow and a ****ty repair if something goes out in the middle of nowhere? Take a look in the rear diff, transfer case, and tranny for metal shavings? Prevantatively try to open up and inspect the trans case and rear diff? Getting parts could be fun, we are in Ecuador with the vehicle. Brake discs were a reasonable challenge to find here!

Any and all thoughts are welcome, and again thank you in advance, this forum is ever a great resource for this mechanically limited van owner

Cheers,
Josh

 

Hey, his may seem like a dumb reply, but are you sure that your rear wheels weren't just losing traction, thus free spinning in the dirt? That would explain the noise, loss of power,the vibration, why it stopped when you decreased throttle, and why in 4WD the noise went away. To test, I would try pulling up a similar paved grade and see if you get the noise.

If I'm misreading and missing something please correct me.

 

Not a dumb reply and in the back of my mind has been the little hope that it was just loss of traction, but it sure sounded like grinding gears

Finding a similarly steep paved road could be a challenge but that is a good idea...