The f450 at it again, can’t make this crap up! For the past month or so, when I out my truck in 4x4 it will slam in. When I am pulling 30k up a rock road, backing etc. it will pop. Well it’s seems to be getting worse, I about got stuck in a field today with 12k behind me. I was in 4x4 powering through the grass about 1,000 feet, 3 times it popped real hard as if it was going in and out of 4x4. I put it in on the road for 1 mile (road was straight) and it randomly will pop. It’s been doing this for a month maybe longer, but getting to the point if it’s in 4x4 under a load it will do it. Seems to be center to passenger side.

i believe it’s a bad hub, anyone else experience a bad hub, I have turned them to lock and unlock many of times over the past month.
driveshaft looks and feels fine, diff looks good?
I am gonna jack it up and see if both sides are spinning, considering ordering a hub and replacing it. Can’t think of anything else it would be.
if that doesn’t fix it, I’m just gonna say the Hell with it, and fix if it ever breaks.

also while I am here complaining again, just started 500 miles ago. Anyone else feel a slight disconnect in the steering wheel when slightly turning left? Is like the steering column feels loose, I feel it in the gas pedal as well. Saw some threads on it, people were replacing steering shaft with an updated one.
not that big a deal, I’ll just live with it, and ignore it, but would be nice if I could address it.

 

Sounds like the transfer case chain is jumping?

 

is this the $90k new truck you just got ? . how have you kept your sanity thus far

 

well now that you say that it makes sense. Not to bear a dead horse into the ground but all this started with a tool that was left in the yolk of the driveshaft and locked the truck up at 30ish miles an hr.they say it all looks good when I “had them check it”
Back in December I had drained all the transfer case fluid out, put a magnet in the oil to look for metal. I didn’t find any. But it is getting worse the slipping under a load.

i am wondering if maybe the hub teeth are stripped from when it locked up, and each time it pops it strips them more.

i drive my 2022 f350 with 14k on it and put in 4x4 and it sounds about the same, the transfer case could be a little louder on my f450 but its negligible, so I can’t tell.

 

this afternoon was the breaking point! Parked it and walked away, or it could have been bad. But I am very patient! Between that and the damn steering wheel BS.

 

with the chain new it seems implausible that it could jump. surely something would break if it did. the older dodge with fulltime system would wear down the chain and sprockets enough to jump but thats after alot of miles

 

I’ve never had popping noises. But after I had to get on mine real hard in 4Lo in 1st gear in deep snow and couldn’t go forward any further. The shifter got stuck in drive, I had to force it out of drive hard to put it into reverse. That was one of those rare come to Jesus moments in my life! Thanks Ford Motor Company. I also had some extremely violent wheel hop in that situation which I actually think helped me get out of that situation.

 

when I say popping, it’s like it’s engaging or disengaging, you can feel it stripping something out, it shakes the truck, other people have noticed it when riding. somewhere either a hub vacuum leak, hub threads are stripped, or like the other guy said a tooth in the transfer case is stripped, but I didn’t see debris in the oil, when I inspected back in December. I don’t think there is anything in the diff to cause that.

i had it get stuck in 3rd gear last April with 30k behind it on a 6% grade at startup. Went to drive, park, turned off, etc. still stuck in 3rd. I said hell with it, and forced that sucker to go, it screamed and bucked like a mule, then about 12 mph, it slammed real hard back to 1st, and has never done it since.

it did downshift into limp mode last November 2022, a reflashed fixed that.

this thing has a mind of its own, it must not like working for me😁. It needs to retire, and tow an RV on vacations, maybe it will enjoy that life better. (But they must keep it light under 10k or it might try to commit suicide on somebody’s vacation)😁

Maybe in a few weeks I’ll wheel it into the dealer, so they can “say it’s fine”, etc, nothing beats getting the “reassurance” from them, with my “7 year 200k” warranty! Working on finding a new dealer. But if I can fix myself for under $500 much less work.
right now I’ve been running the f350!

 

I’d pull the hubs and see if there is any metal debris in them or signs of teeth stripping.

Also worth looking at the slip joint on the front driveshaft, those splines could be bad and you would feel that wiggling the driveshaft.

Edit: another thought is to lock the hubs in and paint pen the tire and u-joint caps at each wheel to see if they come out of sync, can also do that on the driveshaft to see if the slip joint is skipping. If you leave it in 4x4 you can also mark front and rear driveshafts to see if the transfer case is skipping.

 

You should video it

 

Rows of my 1977 K5 Blazer transfer case chain started coming apart. That made a lot of noise when the 4x4 was engaged.