Drive shaft problems.

Shags

Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2007
Location
Wilmington NC
Hey all, just bought a 89 f150 with a 6" suspension lift and a 3" body lift. I bought it without a front drive shaft, well I went and purchased 1 today and put u joints in it.

My buddy has the same lift on his bronco with stock front drive shaft.

Well every time I go in 4wd the front end doesn't seem to want to budge and the rear end hops and spins, something is binding.

but in 2wd it runs great.

did I install the drive shaft wrong? I tried to keep both sides equal, whats wrong? >.<

will I be okay to drive it to work in 2wd with the hubs unlocked tomorrow?

Additional information: when the drive shaft isnt connected it runs great in 4wd high and low, (just the rear spinning tho you can fell the 4low torque) also, im having trouble with my front left Warn hub, when I press it in, it goes from lock to unlock simple, but if I pull it out, it free spins.


Any help would be great, thanks.
 
Wild ass guess here...the front carrier is bad....when you lock the hubs and put in 4wd the front binds up and wont spin...when you unlock the hubs they free spool at the spindles...probably the reason the front d shaft was removed to start with.
 
jack the front up up and see if you can turn the front drive shaft by hand, with it in neutral, if so then i think you have different gear ratio front and rear
 
well one way to check ratio AND whether the carrier is locked up, assuming open front and rear diffs jack up one front tire and one back tire, put it in 4wd and trans in neutral and try to spin the front tire. If it spins, take and chalk mark both at say the top and spin 1 revolution. chalk marks should wind up back where they were both. if locked/spooled you'll need to take all 4's off the ground
 
a_kelley said:
well one way to check ratio AND whether the carrier is locked up, assuming open front and rear diffs jack up one front tire and one back tire, put it in 4wd and trans in neutral and try to spin the front tire. If it spins, take and chalk mark both at say the top and spin 1 revolution. chalk marks should wind up back where they were both. if locked/spooled you'll need to take all 4's off the ground
Click to expand...

^^X2

much easier and better than my idea, lol. this will also point out if its a T-case issue too
 
a_kelley said:
well one way to check ratio AND whether the carrier is locked up, assuming open front and rear diffs jack up one front tire and one back tire, put it in 4wd and trans in neutral and try to spin the front tire. If it spins, take and chalk mark both at say the top and spin 1 revolution. chalk marks should wind up back where they were both. if locked/spooled you'll need to take all 4's off the ground
Click to expand...

ok thanks Ill try this tomorrow and post back my findings.

Ill just drive my ram to work tomorrow and let the f150 sit untill I can find out the problem.

thanks for the quick responses and info, not sure what id do without the internet lol.
 
Well I done the marking and test today the front and rear drive shafts aligned right back with each others marks. So I'm assuming the front left hub that is broken is maybe locked up not sure. I'm confused.
 
Shags said:
Well I done the marking and test today the front and rear drive shafts aligned right back with each others marks. So I'm assuming the front left hub that is broken is maybe locked up not sure. I'm confused.
Click to expand...

The marks you made were on the tires, correct? Your hubs, if one is unlocked (with open diff's), should not turn the driveshaft when you spin the wheel. If both are locked (one if spooled), the driveshaft should turn.

Just reread first post add'tl info.. I don't know much about engage/disengage but I'm inclined to agree with you about that not being right about the doohickey-dis-engager spinning in unlock
 
ohh damn I marked the front and rear drive shaft and spun the tire and watched to see if they the marks stayed in the same place during the whole tire rotation. I guess I did it wrong. I have 1 hub that won't unlock no matter how many times I spin it.
 
Shags said:
ohh damn I marked the front and rear drive shaft and spun the tire and watched to see if they the marks stayed in the same place during the whole tire rotation. I guess I did it wrong. I have 1 hub that won't unlock no matter how many times I spin it.
Click to expand...


As long as you have open differentials, that one hub not unlocking won't matter, except that the side gear will always be driven by the wheel. (I suppose that could cause it to pull, but not terribly I'd think)

As far as marking the shafts, yes those should always match. I'm likely to say that your transfer case is good, but near willing to put money down that the ratios are different.

in other words, when you spin the front tire once around, the rear won't end up exactly where it started.

If you use chalk you can matchmark the body and the tire, and eyeball the matchmark or use a level.
 
At this point, I'd just pop the diff covers and take a look. If the gears are in good shape, start counting teeth to verify matching ratios. If you'd have done this from the beginning, you'd have saved yourself some time and guesswork. Just sayin.
 
a_kelley said:
As long as you have open differentials, that one hub not unlocking won't matter, except that the side gear will always be driven by the wheel. (I suppose that could cause it to pull, but not terribly I'd think)
As far as marking the shafts, yes those should always match. I'm likely to say that your transfer case is good, but near willing to put money down that the ratios are different.
in other words, when you spin the front tire once around, the rear won't end up exactly where it started.
If you use chalk you can matchmark the body and the tire, and eyeball the matchmark or use a level.
Click to expand...
Ok I went and tried again lol thanks marked both both tires at the top center spun the rear 1 full turn and the front only spun 3/4 a turn. So yep diff gear ratios. Does this mean the front gear is taller then the rear? I don't wanna remove the covers till I actually have the money to replace the gears lol might aswell throw a locker in there too :)
 
Shags said:
Ok I went and tried again lol thanks marked both both tires at the top center spun the rear 1 full turn and the front only spun 3/4 a turn. So yep diff gear ratios. Does this mean the front gear is taller
then the rear? I don't wanna remove the covers till I actually have the money to replace the gears lol might aswell throw a locker in there too :)
Click to expand...

front is prolly 4.10 or 4.56 and rear is either 3.50 or 4.10.. but thats a blind guess. front is numerically higher ratio.
 
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