I'm coming from a Jeep and this was not a problem. I have a serious clunk in my driveline, that appears to be coming from my front shaft. I have to take a 8 hr road trip and don't have time to replace the joints before I leave. Can i run for this long without the shaft in place? This will be all road miles and 4wd will not be needed.

Thanks,
Troy

 

Since you have a 2003 I assume you don't have a center differential lock. Which means that you can't drive with out it(front drive shaft).

 

unless you have added CDL the answer is no.. now on another note if you think the clunk is from the front drive shaft you need to stop driving at once. I you do not you run the risk of taking out your transmission when the prop shaft goes. If you must drive it Then I would order form either tom woods or great basin rover and install a new one otherwise you might find yourself on the side of the road with a HUGE bill awaiting you.

 

X2 what jeffh said. Even if you climb under there and the prop. shaft looks alright rebuild or replace it anyway, if you haven't done it yet. It's much, much cheaper than having to buy a prop. shaft and a transmission at the same time when it goes bang and destroys everything. There are pictures of some pretty terrifying ones on this forum. I think they're somewhere in the "write-ups and how-to" sticky.

 

Don't risk it, that sort of drive will kill the drive shaft and most likely punch a hole in the tranny also.
If you are at all mechanical. I can send you a PDF file on how to rebuild the shaft.

 

I dedcided to pull the shafts and rebuild them. I've done u-joints many times and it wasn't difficult at all. The centering ball was a little challenging. She is ready to roll for my trip on Sunday.

The clunk I was hearing wasn't from the driveshafts afterall. There is a little play in both differentials. Is this normal? The turn nice and smooth, and there is no metal in the fluid.

 

I doubt that is your real problem, when do you hear the klunk, how did you determine it is both diffs?

 

I jacked up both differentials independently. With the t-case in nuetral I spent some time playing with the driveshaft. The clunking sound was definately coming from the diffs. The t-case had a little slack, but not nearly as much as the diffs. The front diff seemed to have more play than the rear.


The truck runs nice on the road, and you only hear the "clunking' sound when putting the truck in gear. It doesn't do it during driving.

 

How many miles on the truck? Hearing a clunk when going into gear is somewhat normal on our drive trains.

 

Just coming up on 90K. I was worried it was the driveshaft, given all the horror stories, but that has been taken care of. I'm thinking it is normal.

Thanks,
Troy