noice when in 4wd

Bad Dragon · **Joined:** Fri Aug 18, 2017 8:35 am **Posts:** 5

Hello,

Long time ago I went here and introduced myself. Since then I happily drove my KJ around Europe and Morocco.
But since yesterday I noticed a strange sound coming from my drive train.
When in 4wd, high, partime, fulltime or low gear, there is the noice as if something skips gear tooths.
A friend of mine who is fairly into Overlanding from South Africa, said it could be the transfer case.
So today I checked the transfer case about leakage or such. nothing found.
Secondly when the front wheels are up in the air I can rotate them frealy when in 4wd.
But I cant turn the drive shaft towards the front diff.

Questions are.
First of all, what do you think can it be.
second, shoud I be able to turn the wheels when in 4wd? And I cant turn the driveshaft?

Can you help me out?

Many thanks from Robert

lfhoward · **Posted:** Sun Jan 31, 2021 7:24 pm

Hi Robert,

With 4wd on, you should not be able to turn the front driveshaft by hand, because the gears in the transfer case should be engaged. If the front wheels turn, it’s probably that if you turn one clockwise, the other turns anticlockwise. This would be due to the open differential and would be normal operation. (If you had a locked front differential, neither wheels nor driveshaft would move with the front in the air and 4wd engaged.)

I’m not sure this information helps you find your problem, but you can at least know what to expect with normal operation.

- The CV joint on the transfer case end of the front driveshaft is a common part that wears out. The rubber boot fails, letting dirt and grime into the joint. Look here first. The noise would eventually happen all the time, but would be noisier or more noticeable in 4wd. The CV end of the driveshaft is easily replaced. Info & pictures here: http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=56917
- A bad CV axle shaft on either side could be the source of the noise as well. You’d hear the noise more when making corners, and it will get worse over time.
- The intermediate axle shaft on the right side that connects the front diff to the right CV axle has splines on it that may have worn down. If you find that the right hand CV or the intermediate shaft splines are bad, they must both be replaced together. Otherwise, you’ll be replacing them both again soon.
- It is much less likely that your transfer case or your front differential are broken. Fluid changes can alert you to metal shavings that may be in there.

Hope this helps.

noice when in 4wd

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