drum brake dragging. For those that remember drum brakes you know what I'm talking about. Naturally the truck just went past 36,000 miles.

Steve

 

Hi all,

For what it worth, my ex-wife's '97 XLT 4x4 with 5.4L motor had what we thought was a rear axle noise for several weeks, right after we got it used in 1999 with only 29,000 miles. We took in to the dealer, and they changed the rear end (3.73 LS), and the whine persisted. They pulled out the new gear set and put in another new gear set. Still the whine persisted. And all this time I was telling the mechanics I though the noise sounded like it was coming from the x-fer case area. So eventually they pulled apart the x-fer case and rebuilt it. Still the whine persisted.

Finally, after I had asked them about 5 times to check the CV style front driveshaft u-joint, they found the problem. The CV style joint was bad and was causing the whine. Total silence thereafter, because they installed a heavy duty standard type u-joint and driveshaft from a new 1999 model year. After they finally listened to my input, they contacted Ford and found out they had been having a lot of problems with the CV style joints, and that's why they were using the new standard style on the 1999 models.

So out of that ordeal, we got a new rear end, fresh rebuild on the x-fer case, and finally, the new driveshaft and u-joint. After all that, that 1997 Expy is gone, along with the ex-wife...

I now have a wonderful new wife and the new '04 Expy. If I hear any kind of whine noise on our '04, which has only 16,000 miles, at least I will have some 'experience' about where to start looking...


Take care,


JJ