in 2wd w/ the front hubs unlocked, you should be able to spin the front shaft all day long. in 4x4 1/4" movement is pretty normal.

Does the Tcase have a slip yolk style rear driveshaft (shaft just pushes into/out of the tcase) or is it a fixed yolk style (like at the axles)?

 

Ok Blue Rebel, The rain finally stopped so I just checked the yoke. My rear output shaft is a slip style and the front is fixed. Those are not what brought me pleassure however. After reading your posts and several others, (Deeznuts882) I have found my rear-most u joint, at the differential is shot. I am surprised it hasn't let go and fell out on the highway. I have been checking the drive shaft with the truck in park since my e brake cable is broken. I just chocked the wheels and checked them and GOOD GOD what a difference.......I feel like such a fool after all this worry about the transfer case. The transfer case seems to be fine and like you said,"a 1/4 inch or less of play is ok when it is in gear and in 4wd" and the front shaft spins all day long with the front hubs free wheeling and in 2wd. Thankfully, with the good advice you and several others have given me; I have gained a lot of knowledge about troubleshooting external things and I should be on my way to a good night's sleep........God bless you all....I will change out that u joint at first light, and all the others while I am at it. Thanks bro......

 

glad you got it figured out! when i brought my truck home there where no needle bearings in the u joint caps just dust and tons of slop in the driveshaft and it made a clacking noise at low speeds lol i had no idea what it was till i pulled the driveshaft one day and figured it out

 

Hey Tbird, I guess I am not aalone when it comes to overlooking the obvious. I would have thought that the drive shaft would have moved around whether or not it is in gear?????Go figure. I'm breathing a bit easier for the time being. I'll see what tomorrow brings........

 

man, is that lucky! thats a MUCH cheaper fix than the trans case.

 

Just wanted to thank all who added their input and helped me hash through my dilema. I changed out my ujoint and that was the end of the noise. I thought it was the transfer case because I could feel the vibration through the range select shifter......Looked at new tires for my rig over the weekend. Going with Cooper, LT265/60R16s. Not too big where I will sacrifice what little gas milage I do get (11-13mpg) depending on if I keep my foot out of it. I will post some pics at a later date...........Thanks again all.........

 

Good to hear you got it figured out and fixed. Just for further info, you do have the 13-56 Tcase. The 13-45 only came with a fixed rear driveshaft yolk.

 

Hey Blue Rebel, I appreciate your input and expertise. I was looking at tcases on ebay and a few other places and the pictures I saw were a bit different. That would probably explain what I was seeing. Now I am ever so thankful that I did not have to replace the tcase. I may have ordered and bought the wrong one...Whew........On a simpler note. I am doing my exhaust today. I want to put some headers in at some point but I will have to do my homework. There is not too much room; F250 XLT Lariat, 351W. For now, I am coming about 12 inches aft of the y-pipe,losing the cat, re[placing that with a flowmaster, and going straight out the back. I do not have the time to pull the motor right now. Besides; I'm going to be restoring the body this summer and worrying about things like the headers when I have the truck torn down.

 

kewl, good to hear. as far as headers go, i got the hooker competition LTs on my 351, and i love em. only problem i ran into was that because my motor mounts were shot, the headers got too close to the front driveshaft. Had to get new motor mounts to get em to fit right.

 

Hey Blue Rebel, Thanks for the info about those motor mounts. I will look into that when the time comes. As for my current endeavors; I have 3" from the y-pipe back to the cat so I ended up replacing the cat with a 3" glasspack(Holley), and ran 3"pipe back to a 3" Flow Master and right out the back with 3". All straight from the y-pipe to the tail pipe. I fit it all together with sleeves to allow for a little alignment this way or that. I have it clamped now and will weld it all together once I suck it up to the belly with swivel hangers. It sounds awesome for a single exhaust. I was turning heads this afternoon coming home through the neighborhood. I love it.........

 

thats cool man. hey, BR, do you know if i can run a pipe around the front driveshaft instead of around the whole t-case and everything? i want to come as close to strait pipes as possible.

 

straight pipes just means you don't have any mufflers or cats not that your pipes are straight lol

 

to me, it means STRAIT pipes. lol. ive done it a couple of time with my friends vehicles. i just want to know if i can wrap it around that darn shaft...

 

Hey guys; I ended up taking the Holley out of my exhaust and went with a 3" pipe from the Y-pipe to the flowmaster and out the back with 3". The Holley was dampening it a bit. She rumbles nice but now I want headers. I eliminated the sleeves and took the pipes to a muffles shop where they bumped the ends out to fit everything. It looks cleaner (professional) and utilizes half the clamps.. Hey 460/5; as long as you can fit the pipe in there without hitting anything, why not. The heat will not hurt that shaft . If anything try to keep it away from the u-joints so when it is sitting it wont heat them up and let the grease run out of them. The only other problem might be servicing the front shaft. You may have to drop the exhaust to get to the front shaft.

 

cool. ill keep that in mind. thanks.