Last night I had breakage in the front end of my 93 F350 4x4. While driving in 2 high with the manual hubs locked, I had a vibration rapidly increase to a banging. The noise was obviously from somewhere in the front driveline. I slowed and pulled into a parking lot. A quick visual inspection and manual twist of the front driveshaft showed the u-joints intact. I unlocked the hubs and was able to drive home with no problems. While driving in snow in 4 high several days earlier, I noticed noise and vibration from the front, but put it down to roughness and snow on the road. This is my first winter with a solid axle; my other Fords have been Dana 50 TTB and newer IFS.

My immediate thinking is a broken hub. As I recall, I had similar noise and vibration when my 95 F250 with the TTB ate the factory auto-locking hubs. I kind of hope it is, because that seems to be the quickest and easiest fix of the various things that can break in the front driveline.

The question is, is there anything else I should suspect or check before I replace the hubs? I'm planning to jack the front wheels off the ground so I can rotate them manually locked and unlocked, in and out of 4 wheel to try to isolate the problem. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Bowhunt72

 

Did you look at the u-joints just in behind the steering knuckle on each side?

They can and do blow apart.

 

Didn't look at the axle u-joints yet. This was a quick dive under the truck in a parking lot in the dark before going home to finish putting the brakes on my car back together so I could get to work this morning. Working a 24 hour shift at the firehouse today, and I'll be back home and able to work on the truck tomorrow. My first inclination was to just pick up the hubs on my way home, but I think I'll try to make sure I have a good diagnosis first.