First look in here guys. Comin over from the 6.0L Forum. Would appreciate opinions on where to start looking for this problem. Jumped in the Ranger yesterday to haul some firewood. When I put it in 4WD High, everything appeared to engage properly and dash light lit up. When I was on the throttle, I would get a periodic bang somewhere, as if something was trying to engage. Its hard enough to jar the truck a little bit. If I coasted there was no banging. This happens about every 10 or 15 seconds so its not constant. When I got home, I got under it and turned the front drivshaft to make sure the hubs were locking, and they did lock. At home, I shifted to 4WD LOW Range, and that engaged fine, and it definately was locked up. However I did not try to accelerate and get up alot of speed to see if the banging would continue in LOW RANGE. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think its the hubs but you said they were locked in. Very odd. Anything change while you're turning and driving in 4x4?

 

Not really. As I was writing the post, I was thinking that I never really verified for sure it was locked up in the transfer case. In Low side, of couse it was " crab walkin" when I would cut the wheel so I know it was locked up then, but in high side, I never really put it in a bind to make sure I was getting power to all 4 wheels. I am assuming that the servo on the Transfer case was moving to engage the transfer case in High range, because it was obviously engaging in Low range. But I am assuming, not positive, cause I am not totaly familiar with how it is set up. I know this T-case servo has been a problem over the years on these trucks, and I did print off DIY instructions on how to remove, rebuild and reinstall the servo a few years ago because I thought someday I would need them. So, maybe a little more testing is called for.

 

Did you check the U-joints on the front driveshaft and the joints on the half-shafts?

 

I would suspect these if the noise was a more constant clunking sound. This is a hard bang that slightly jars the whole truck and this happens going any speed, but only every 10 seconds.......not a constant sound and DOES NOT coincides with the rotation of the drivetrain. That is why it makes me think it has to do with something trying to engage.

 

I just had this EXACT problem with my '07 Ranger. When in 4 wheel high, driving straight it would slam in the transfer case about every 15 seconds. My mileage was JUST under 60,000 miles so I took it immediately to Ford dealer last week. They couldn't figure it out until they measured my brand-new tires. I had just had 4 new Cooper tires installed. The rear 2 tires were 3/4" smaller in circumference. Went back to tire dealer, they put on 4 new Hercules tires.

PROBLEM IS COMPLETELY GONE.

The Cooper tires were mis-marked or defective or ?????

Kev
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My issue isn't related to tires as my 33" BFG's have been on the truck for a long time. Glad you got it fixed. Its funny you replied today. I haven't been on the site for a couple of months, and just this morning decided to look into my hubs this weekend so started doing some research on rebuilding them before I start turning wrenches and Wa-La, you posted. What a coincidence.

 

Are your hubs "Auto-lok"? I changed my transfer case on my 96 4x4 thinking that was the problem! It wasn't! The weak link is the hubs. After changing my t-case I began to hear the same clicking or snapping noise that prompted me to think that had been the problem? I have since put on manual hubs and no more rude noises! I used the same test (4wd up a steep slope) in both instances! The Ranger Station has lots of pic's showing the hub change which is very easy!