when i turn slow and hard, fully turning the steering wheel like in a parking lot, i get a slight vibration or a little bit of a rub going on,

i dont think the nearly bald rear tires and half bald front tires should be causing it to do this, and it seems like the truck does it the most when turning one direction, not the other. its not NEARLY as bad as when you have it in 4WD and you get the "hop" ( and this issue is with it in 2WD )

i havent yet ruled out the front tires rubbing the Ford molded mudflaps quite yet, but there is NO evidence they are hitting, i havent had time to have someone stand outside the truck and watch. this is a new issue in the last couple days.

i JUST tonight changed both the front and rear differential fluids, the rear had a tiny bit of metal shavings on the drain plug, little enough that im not worried about it with 90K on the truck,

the front looked brand new inside, no marks on the pinion.

i tried to test the U-joints by hand, no budge at all but after i checked i realized i had it in park, i dont know if that matters or not?


last, i think i will jack the front axle up tomorrow, and rock the top of the tires side to side to see if there is any slop in the ball joints.

any other possibilities ???

 

Do a search on "clunking" and you will get several pages of results. My 01 F250 does the same thing at a full lock turn. Most posts seem to point to bushings of various sorts, or hub issues. One of these days I need to look around under my truck as well.

 

Check your front hubs. You may have one dragging.

When the hubs are unlocked, you should be able to reach behind the wheel and spin the U-joint with your hand.

 

I had something similar happen on my '01. By all means check everything front to back but I would double check the rear driveshaft u-joints. I stuck a pry bar in mine and got no movement so I thought they were good. What happened was the grease dried out and the joint would bind, crack and pop when I turned a hard corner going slow especially with a trailer on. I changed all the joints in the rear driveshaft and the problem went away. Good Luck.

 

i somehow forgot to mention in my post that this is with my 2006 F350 Super Duty

its got the "auto" hubs with the switch in the dash, should i still be able to move these 4wd u-joints ?

 

As long as you do not have 4x4 engaged those front u-joints should spin freely with the wheels both straight and turned.

 

My 2007 f250 vibrates a little when I turn on the rear axle. I was told it was from the limited slip axle.

 

today i jacked the front end up- NO play at all from the ball joints.

put her in neutral, cant get any slop in the U-joints

i was able to freely rotate the 4WD axle shaft between the front diff and tire rim. i can make both sides click just a little bit either way, and then they spin as normal. thats if i give it a quick snap. when i start to turn it.

i then greased the 4wd u-joints- silly me... those havent been greased in 2-3 oil changes... never knew they had grease zirks. cant find any more on the rest of the truck.

so, last of all i took the front mudflaps off just as a test. ran a few errands, and didnt notice the clicking / vibration tonight, ill drive it for a couple more days without it, and see what happens.

thanks for all the help, so i knew what to check for and how to test the 4WD axles.