Full lock means turn the steering wheel as far as you can the one way, spin the wheels, then turn it as far as you can the other way and spin the wheels. See if you feel any binding. Transmission should be in park and the truck in 2wd when you do this.

 

Exactly what MrGman said for the front. I made that suggestion because sound can carry funny in these trucks.

As for the rear, even with limited slip you should be able to spin each wheel although a little more force is needed. I haven't had a reason to open my differential yet, so I can't even tell you what to look for in there. I'll let someone that knows what they're doing take it from here.

 

Lock or Full Lock describes having the front wheels turned all the way to one side or the other.

The problem certainly sounds like it is coming from the front. It actually sounds like your tire is binding on something (inner fender, steering arm, etc.). On my truck I get exactly the sound you're describing. The issue for me is caused by the front portion of the inner fender on the front driver's side. It only happens at full lock (right) and only in reverse. It only happens in reverse because of the angle of the fender, forward it just rubs slightly, rearward it catches on the tread like a card in the spokes of a kid's bike. Bear in mind it may not occur at all angles of flex, it may only occur when your driver's wheel is compressed into the wheel well for example.

If I was you I would check the following:

1. Front fenders and wheels for points of contact/rubbing at full lock in either direction. If anything seems even close to hitting, test at flex. You can also back the truck out until the noise occurs and stop immediately, then inspect for rubbing. Worst case scenario you can put some paint or chalk across your tires in a stripe and then back out, look for where the chalk is worn differently.
2. Pop that differential cover off and look for anything unusual in the fluid or in the teeth of the gears. Logic would state that if a problem developed after a recent change, it is probably related to that change. You didn't drop a nut or screw in there did you? I say the teeth because it's like there is a partially chipped tooth/teeth if you're slipping in only one direction.
3. Check your brakes, specifically the e-brake. In old brakes where the e-brake isn't used much it can get rusty and wear to the point where it's like engaging a gear in one direction, usually reverse.
4. Check your transfer case and make sure you're not in 4WD. Binding in 4WD between the front and rear axle can cause noise like that at slow speeds. You wouldn't notice it going straight, but it'll absolutely wreck your drivetrain.
5. Check your suspension bushings/points, both front and rear.
6. Check your universal joints, they can bind very noticeably while turning.

Good luck!

 

Did some of the checks y'all wanted.
Rear wheels do turn, but with a lot of pressure. It's limited slip I'm sure! Thx HeyYou.
The fluid needed changing. It was leaking. Cover plug was shot and I had to open it up and change it. Looked good in there. No metal anywhere. That bump bump bump thing when moving slow into the driveway was already there, just has gotten worse now. I think the diff is good and I think y'all are right about a bind somewhere!

It's like somethings grabbing at it while rolling, then lets it go immediately, sort of the definition of a bind. It's trying to bind while moving, but it cant bind it enough to a stop so it keeps trying as you roll. Thats what I think the bump bump bump bump, or a grab grab grab grab grab as you're rolling slowly. And wheels have to be turned! Have I mentioned that? Ever? (That the wheels have to be turned while doing it, did I mention it? Like once or twice? Maybe? Or a thousand times possibly, any mention of that a thou times, at all?)

I now think y'all are all over this thing, with the binding theory! I was wrong I believe. So I jacked the front up and saw bad ball joints. Took a few pics of stuff under there!

Did the full lock test. Left and right. Several times. Pass wheel was the worse. At 3 oclock 9 oclock, It wobbled some. Wasnt tight at all! And the ball joints were def dryrotted, No grease in the boots! Both lower ones had slits. Dried up in ball joint boots!

But also theres a bar going all the way across the truck, from the pass ball joint to the other side. It has a thing that looks like the part on a screen door that holds the door open. And another shorter bar leaves that bar at a "Y", about half way down.

When the wheels moved that little bit back and forth with hands at 3 and 9, that bar's moving a lot! Also all its bushings, boots are dryrotted too, like the balljoints boots. About like every piece of rubber under the front. And I can grab it and twist it almost 1/4 turn effortlessly.
Can that bar thing's bushings and rubber all be replaced? Or is that not a good idea? Like, should I just buy a new bar?


That ball joint's boot is open, has slits from dryrot, theres no grease in it. So is the other bushing to the right on the bar going to ball joint, so is that one up top on the part that 90's to the left. All dryrotted under the front and wheels wobble left to right, and that bar can be twisted by hand a 1/4 turn with ease. Is that normal? Also that u-joint slightly clinks back and forth a bit.

 

That fluid is from pwr steering hose leak! Another issue. But this is that bar that has that screen door looking piece.

You can twist it about a 1/4 turn effortlessly. It goes to the ball joints. Theyre both dryrotted and slits and no grease in them. Almost all the rubber boots and bushings are dryrotted under here! Think thats part of the prob?
Thanks for the help! I assume I need to replace those lower ball joints right away. The u-joint sort of clinks on the left wheel.

I got lots of pics. Prob one or 2 of everything under there! If you need one, just tell me what ya wanna see! No prob!! THANKS!

 

Did you use gear lube AND the LSD additive? (some come with it already in there, but, not always enough...... parts store should have the stuff on the shelf, friction modifier.)

Looks like it's time to change out a bunch of your steering linkage. (that's the sloppy parts in your front axle.) Good time to do the HD upgrade? It's a crossover style steering, instead of the "Y" steering you have now.

The 'screen door' thingy is a steering stabilizer. It's basically just a shock absorber, mounted sideways.

There is a thread around here somewhere of a member doing the HD steering upgrade, I think it even included part numbers.... couple hundred bucks for all you need, but, you are going to end up spending that anyway, as it appears ALL your parts need replaced.

 

The Y you're describing are the steering tie rods. They are definitely not supposed to move by hand. The sound you're describing is almost certainly that U-Joint that you found play in.

The HD steering upgrade is a good move if you're replacing everything anyway. The 2nd gen Y style steering is a known weak point. The geometry of your steering changes with suspension flex. The style from the newer HD trucks is a T style where the two wheels are tied together directly which keeps steering angle the same no matter what angle the axle is at.

 

Yes Sir. Added some Mopar additive yesterday. Put about about 3 of the 4oz's in it. So now it has the additive from the Valvoline AND this.

The only reason I got this truck was to be able to tow a couple broke down cars to the recycle place, tow a small trailer w trash to the landfill sometimes and to tow a car from Fla to Ga one day for a friend.
So when I found this truck, and it had that elec brake thing in it and then he said, yeaaaaa, works fine, I was bout sold then. But I went home to think about it. When he called and dropped price to 2000, that was it, I was sold! Thinking I had it "goin on" then!

But now, only drove it a few times, and haven't even towed even the little 4x6 trailer to the landfill yet, much less towed a car from fla to here with a 2 wheel dolly!

Then the more I've read about the gen2 Rams and their transmissions, cats, and a few other things, I'm of course thinking I got in over my head.
but with y'all helping me, I was able to fix that trans leak. Y'all helped me get a new shift lever seal out in, WITHOUT dropping the trans (which was a u know what!), install new water pump and all that stuff that goes with it, the rear brakes, a couple other minor things and now helpin with this new H/D suspension that HeyYou is thinking it needs now. And I appreciate every of it!

At this point I assume I go try to find the link to the h/d suspension someone else is putting in theirs.
Is it possible to just take the bigger tires off and go with smaller tires? Then that would allow regular suspension parts? Or leave it now that it's already up there. I like the bigger tires, don't really wanna go low! They're size 33X12.5 R15LT. The rims aren't much to be proud of but look good enough as they're black like the rest of the truck.

Is there a lift kit, a leveling kit or anything done to it? Think p/o did that at least, or is it possible to just put giant tires on something without doing anything to it? I know the drivers side splash guard has rub marks on it. Nice in your face rubbing, not the just a little scrape here or there. Its got its own big thick pattern on that splash guard! He did say I may wanna get a 50 dollar leveling thing when I bought it.

Ok, Lastly(phewww!), I have money to do stuff. Not rich, but have enough to do some stuff to make this driveable and safe and maybe a couple upgrades after that. New billet maybe, or some chrome here or there. Maybe not on the chrome thing. But a paint job maybe, even an earl schives one, if earl still exists.
But do you start with the front end's suspension 1st? If so, I think it should be H/D parts- Period! Then do the catalytic repair after that? Or vice versa?(it sounds like a giant bag of rocks in it!)

 

15" rims might make doing the cross-over steering interesting..... may run into clearance problems on the wheels......

The idea behind changing over to the HD (cross-over) steering, is BECAUSE it is cross-over, and not the Y style. With the Y style, toe angle changes as the suspension cycles, which can make life interesting...... With the cross-over style, that doesn't happen.

Every brand of trucks has their own unique problems. Who made it isn't really the issue, so much as How Long Ago it was made. Consider: Our trucks are all pushing 20 plus years old...... Gotta expect a certain amount of problems at that age.

 

Ohhh. So I got 15" rims? With those big a** tires? Only 15"? How'd you know that? Cool, that's pretty interesting how you know that HeyYou.

So do do the h/d change and keep the bigger tires with the 15" rims it already has? Oh yea, I cant really do that, can I?
Do the h/d change and get a smaller set of "giant" tires, rims?

I guess I'm trying to figure out-
I shouldn't do the crossover h/d change without some diff size rims, tires or both because the current set of tires with rims I got doesn't work well for the crossover set up/upgrade.

It seems It'd have to have diff tires, rims, or both, no matter which way it went as the current set of rims and tires don't mesh to hot with the h/d crossover set up, and the hd set up is the only way to eliminate the screen door thing piece?

Shouldn't we all do the h/d crossover instead of any other options? Especially if the whole front suspension parts are practically shot ad need something done anyway?

Would y'all do the crossover at this point?
And before you do anything, do you need to also factor into the decision anything like that suspension "lift kit" thing, or maybe some cheap "leveling kit" and/or one of those "air bag suspension kits"??

Ugh, this is sort of getting confusing, I think I may be making it more so than it has to be? I just sort of wanted to be high but function decent enough to tow sometimes, although rarely, but look as good or better as it does up high right now and also capable of towing a car to the recycle place. I got 2 broken down ones.

Man, Thanks for y'alls insight and opinions!