At least I thought that's what it was on my 97 Ranger 4x4!

I thought that it was the right side that wasn't engaging. I had quickly put it up on stands the other day waiting on better weather to dig into it and turned the drive shaft. The left side locked up but the right side didn't but I swore I seen the right axle turning but I got into it today and that seems to be the problem!

The axle rocks back/forth but won't turn even with a long pry bar in the U-joint. I did manage to rotate it a bit. During our last snowfall when it went bad I heard loud racheting from the right side as if the axle was turning! So, any way I jacked up the rearend, started it up and put it into fourwheel drive. The left front was turning but not the right side and I got the same wild jerking motion coming up thru the steering wheel as I did that day.

Looking at the manual, it looks like either the bearing on the slip yoke shaft coming out of the case or the needle bearing inside the right spindle. Worse yet, something inside the housing!!

I was think of pulling the brake caliper, rotor and loosening the spindle to see if it turns on that part of the axle. Ah! It appears to be on studs from the steering knuckle so I can't check that needle bearing that way. Hmmm, I have the wheel and hub off. I can move the axle up/down and rock it by hand right there. Well, I guess that doesn't really mean that the needle bearing isn't bad.

Don't know if I shouldn't leave this job for the summer or not, if it's really bad I'll have to.

Anyone run into anything like this before??