So I I was reading through another thread and someone mentions it is a good idea to put the truck in 4 Low (without locking hubs), when backing up a heavy load. It worked great! Then I was driving home towing a heavy trailer and saw that my oil temps were getting up pretty high, around 217 degrees which is not very common for my truck but has been known to to get up there during the summer months. The 4x4 indicator light was still on( sometimes it takes a couple days to go out), so I thought maybe it was still in 4 high and causing more work for the engine and giving me higher oil Temps. I crawled under the truck to see if the four-wheel drive shaft spins freely and damn near burnt my hand! The four-wheel drive shaft spins freely when I am in park so it's not engaged in four-wheel. Does anyone know what would make the four-wheel drive shaft so hot??

 

wow thats pretty interesting, i never seen that happen

 

Thanks for the bump skip, I am pretty puzzled by it too.

 

Might be time to check fluid level in front diff

 

I see a correlation here. I would suggest that you get a friend or spouse to drive your truck slowly while you crouch off to the side, safely away from the truck, crouched down so you can look at your front driveshaft to see if it is turning.

Whenever I shift out of 4wd, my indicator light extinguishes IMMEDIATELY.

 

I agree, I'm going to give that a shot tomorrow. As far as the indicator light goes, from what I've read that is a common problem for the light to stay on but definitely going to check the drive shaft to make sure

 

 

Engine heat may be what's heating up the shaft. If it free spins it's not engaged. The shaft is likely to turn while driving, pretty common, but it won't be at full speed like the rear. Even tho the drive gears to the shaft are disengaged, all the stuff spinning will make the shaft turn when you're driving. It would take a lot of friction in the front drive assembly to raise oil or driveshaft temperatures, I can't imagine that much friction happening anywhere for more than a few minutes without causing an obvious failure.

As for backing in 4low, if you have the stock hubs and the system is working they will engage themselves so beware. I disconnected the auto hub lock system in my '99 so I could do the 4low maneuvering without issues.

 

Sounds like a good application for a Go-Pro and a chalk mark on each driveshaft. Or a borescope camera, they're inexpensive on Amazon and they wifi images to your phone or tablet. A picture is worth 1000 words, but 30fps streaming video is priceless in some cases.

 

I did a similar thing when I was diagnosing the clutch chatter my truck was experiencing. The camera mounted under the truck gave me confidence that the leaf springs and traction bars were not the problem.

 

jstihl I think I misunderstood your first post. Are you talking about the axle shaft or the front drive shaft? My first thought was axle shaft. If it's the front drive shaft did you grab it near the front or closer to the transfer case? could you have a small exhaust leak blowing directly on the drive shaft? Is your transfer case smoking hot?

 

it's the front drive shaft , it was hot on both ends and from what I remember the transfer case was pretty warm as well but not as hot as the front drive shaft. I haven't seen any exhaust leaks . I tried probably 10 different times to put it in two wheel drive, and it feels like it's in 2 wheel drive but the indicator light stays on. This has been a problem in the past where is the indicator light would go out in a couple of days

 

I haven't checked the gears, but I had all the fluids changed out when I bought the truck. That was about 2 years ago, 40,000 miles and no leaks. Been raining here most of the day so just waiting for a chance to go check it out. Is the fluid supposed to be about a quarter inch below the top plug?

 

Yep and Yep you should be able to dip your pinky finger in and get a solid result. If needed add specified lube.

If dif and tc readings for lube are good, I suspect your trans is locked. You can always drop the front shaft to isolate the issue.

Denny (check your relays!)

 

thanks Double D, do you mean it is locked in 4-wheel? My four-wheel is all manual, I'm assuming that there wouldn't be any relays for that right?