Scarlet HO

I appreciate all the good information and will be checking all the afore mentioned areas. I KNOW the fron drive shaft is in need of having the cardin joint fixed. I haven't fixed this up until now thinking the front drive shaft was not spinning but now I find this is not the case. The front shaft will be coming out tonight when I get home and getting fixed.

The only times that this has happened is when the truck was driven 50 miles without stopping. At around that mark the issues begin. The other thing that puzzles me is why I could not put the truck into 4wd when I pulled into a parking lot to check things over. It would shift into neutral but lot 4 low or 4 hi. I tried backing up and pulling forward to see if the gears would mesh but no go.

While driving in the parking lot it sounded like the passenger front was grinding itself to pieces. I decided to chance driving it home (figured it couldn't do much more damage) and the darned thing got quieter and smoother as I got closer to home. Once there it would shift in and out of 4lo and 4hi like butter.

Go figure.

RowJ

4H should be easy as long as wheel is strait??
4L is tricky at best. Only works for me if coasting about 2 mph forward with gear shifter in neutral!

RJ

Scarlet HO

That was the first time I ever had difficulty shifting into 4wd. Still trying to figure out the grinding noise. Of course it quit by the time I got home.

Scarlet HO

OK, got home and removed the drive shaft. It was MUCH worse than I thought. One of the cups on the fron joint is completely dry and I could not even move it. The rear cardin joint had about an 1/8" play side-to-side, very scary for sure.

After removing the drive shaft I went to the front to inspect the tie rod ends, etc. If I grab the straight bar that has the tie rode ends on it, I can rotate is quite a bit. If I go to the passenger side and do the same thing then metal hits metal. All the rubber boots are cracked and worn, I wouldn't be surprised if these were the original parts on the truck.

So, what would be the best was to fix this? Go get some quality stock replacements after all if these were original they lasted over 100K miles. Any quality aftermarket kits that I can get and improve my situation without breaking the bank?? My budget is getting kind of thin here.

Thanks again in advance for all the advice!!