Learned sumpin new (for the Ext. T-case guys)

[Adam N.D.J.]

Welp, I went out wheelin on Sunday at the local ORV park, had a blast. Spent most time in RWD though, stuff there is just too easy. But the mud was plentiful and gooey.

 

Anyways, I'm on my way home, and I'm hearing this click-click-click, sounds just like a front axle getting ready to go by-by. Didn't surprise me, cause I was doing some 4wd doughnuts, and had most of the suspension submerged in the ponds for some time. So I'm thinking I put too much stress on one of the axles, and there was water in it. And I'm RWD on the pavement, so there's no real way for me to see if the axle is really dead or not, so I just drive it home.

 

Well today was nice and sunny so I decide to go pull the axle so I can go exchange it (lifetime warranty, gotta love it). As I'm under there the nice new axles still look new, no holes or tears, nothing. And they are both solid. So hmm, I look around, all over the front end, then I check my front driveline. The bolts holding the flange to the diff, there were only 3, and they were barely holding on to a thread. So I take em off, put on new lock washers, some lock tight, replace the missing one, and take it for a drive, the "axle" noise was gone.

 

So the moral of the story is, drivline noise can sound like an axle noise, if it sounds like you've got an axle going, check your DL bolts.