snow, lots of it. my crappy truck is a 90 ranger, just switched to the manual hubs, my 4 wheel drives works, but i get a chirpy noise when engaged. with the hubs unlocked and the 4x4 "on" i still get a noise. with the 4x4 off, no noise. there was a little play in the front axles when i had the hubs off. The noise was there last year as well, i assumed since the auto hubs were not working it was the hub that was fried and squeaking. I think it is a passenger side u joint. since i can't do diddley about it till next week, and need the 4x4 this weekend, how much abuse will the u joint take, what will happen if it fails? will it make a grinding noise before going boom!? any ideas?
You sould be OK for a while. I have seen some worn u-joints on axels that hold up till someone really works the truck. Dont drop the clutch. and take it easy and you will be fine.:Smarty:
4x4 ken, to answer one of your questions, if 1 of the front axle u-joints breaks completely you will no longer have 4 wheel drive. my advice, get the joint fixed a.s.a.p. check the other side also. when 1 side is going you can bet the other side is not far behind.
I plan on checking them this coming week, i was worried that if they broke it would do other collateral damage to the front end. loss of 4 wheel sucks, but loss of use of truck sucks even worse. supposed to a warm 40 degrees this coming week!!!
Whether or not your u-joint breaks is totally dependent on how hard your beating on it. If you have 35's and your spinning around in the snow you'll break it for sure (even a new one will break). If it does break, just put it in 2 wheel and unlock your hubs and put 300 pounds in the back. A freind of mine drove his 72 3/4 ton Dodge around for a month with a broken u-joint in the front end. When you do tear your front end apart, pull both axleshafts. No sense in having your truck down twice. BTW...At least you don't have my problem. I have to replace a radius arm bushing tomorrow before the round hole the bolt goes thru turns into an oval one. Then I go out to work at 11 PM. Gotta love old worn out trucks...
I Have a few gravestones in the back for weight. i usually say i found them laying in a big field just full of them!!!! (they are old sample and practice pieces). a 2x1 marker is about 120 lbs. three fit nicely across the wheel wells. my previous crappy trucks, an s-10 and a dakota weren't 4x4. not too bad in the snow with a bit of weight. though the s10 was a far better truck.
I used to have a 91 Crown Vic Police Interceptor. Every winter I put my studs on and about 200 lbs of cat liter in the back (along with a snow shovel). That thing never got stuck. I thought I would never need a 4x4 to get around in the snow. Then after hitting 3 deer within 2 months, I decided to get higher in the air. Two of those deer hit my grill and one hit the windsheild. Scared the crap out of me. With my truck I hit 2 deer. One deer went underneath and one just bounced off the side. Being taller than deer is a good thing!!
