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Help, AWD, Tranfer case / front drive shaft question......

I have finally located the 'noise' under my 98 Exploder.

After a year of questions here, checks with my friendly transmission shop (sadly now retired) and cash for nothing at my dealership...... I let it go till it was so bad, it became obvious what the issue is.

Raise the car off the ground and rotate the front wheels, the noise is coming from the front of the Transfer Case. There is a solid looking UJ/spline slide assembly in line with the drive shaft. Its not a yoke, but solid. This looks like it might be the equivalent of auto-locking hubs, but on the shaft. Am I close?

I took off the rock shield and tried to remove the front drive shaft. Haynes doesn't describe this model so I am unsure how to get it apart. I cannot get the shaft out. Do I have to drop the front diff? I hope not.

Is the UJ/spline slide assembly at the front of the transfer case removable and replaceable? Any clues how to drop the front drive shaft. Its a Borg Warner TC, but no idea which number describes.

All help appreciated.

David, Raleigh.

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You are looking at the constant velocity joint on the rear of the driveshaft where it mounts to the transfer case.. The AWD transfer case is a Borg Warner 4403 I think. Below are the instructions from the manual for pulling the front driveshaft. The bolts that hold the driveshaft to the transfer case are not supposed to be reused. The constant velocity joint cannot be rebuilt, you gotta go buy a new driveshft. Get a good hex head socket (Sears? )to remove the bolts - they are tuff to get out

Torque the transfer case side bolts to 22 ft lbs., and the differential side bolts to 11 to 15 ft lbs. Ignore #1 and #3 since you are installing a new driveshaft

1 .Index-mark the front axle pinion flange to the front driveshaft.
  1. Remove the transfer case skid plate.
  2. Index-mark the transfer case pinion flange to the front driveshaft.
  3. Remove and discard the front driveshaft CV joint-to-transfer case bolts and washers.
  4. Remove the front driveshaft-to-front axle bolts. NOTE: Always disconnect the front driveshaft from the transfer case first. Remove the front driveshaft.

NOTE: Install new front driveshaft CV joint-to-transfer case bolts and washers and new front driveshaft-to-front axle bolts and straps. NOTE: Always install the front driveshaft at the front axle first. Follow the removal procedure in reverse order.

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ross via CarKB.com

The reason I couldn't get it out was the CV joint (as you so correctly point out) had dissembled itself internally and removed most of the spline from the drive shaft - so THAT was the noise !!! The shaft wouldn't push back into the CV and hence I could not get the front yokes off the diff. However with a bit of cunning and your confirmation it came (in other words - I hit it).

Usually when I dabble with cars its $30 (£17) worth of parts and two days of labor. When I finally got this off it cost me half a day of labor and $530 (£300) for a replacement shaft!!!!! Can you believe that?

Thanks again.

David, Raleigh

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Yes, the car makers have fairly competitive prices on the parts you can buy in the aftermarket, but if it isn't available as an aftermarket part, then the skys the limit.

I have found a junkyard in my area (Colorado) that has a pretty good selection of late 90's Exploders. Really good if you need one of those elctronic modules - more Ford suck your wallet dry parts.

Glad it finally worked out with that bigger hammer!

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ross via CarKB.com

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