i have a 1999 dodge ram 1500 sport 4x4 and i need to know what kind of front axle i have cause something happened to my front axle cause my 4x4 not to work but the t_case angages so i know its the axle and theres a terrible noise coming from it.

 

it might be your hubs, dont just automatically think its your axel. Maybe if you have the money to invest, change your hubs to manual locking hubs, they can sometimes outlast the automatic locking ones.

 

how can i tell if its the hubs or not

 

The noise may be a sign that somethings wrong. Otherwise I would say check vaccum leaks as they seem to be common with this setup. Or the CAD unit but I don't know that they would cause a horrible noise it's just common for them to cause it not to work.

 

well, its probably either your hubs, or your cv joint, but your cv joint would be giving you issues whether it was in 4wd or not, so I would say its your hub. The reason why I say its your hub is because the 4wd system would not engage at all if the axel was disengaged and not working properly, and also, because an axel would probably be locked up whether you are in 4 or not, where as the hub could just be not engaging and the system would not be able to properly tell, and the hub could be messed up and the truck could still run fine until you throw 4wd on.

 

Although manual locking hubs may not be the most convienient, at least YOU KNOW you are locked in. My brothers truck has them. His truck looks very sweet, but I always feel silly getting out of the truck with him to lock the hubs lol. Not really sure if it would be worth paying the money on parts to switch over though since they are already automatic locking hubs.

 

yeah, like i said, the only upside to them is that they last a little longer. The downside is, that if you feel confident when your going through some hole, and dont lock them up before, and manage to get stuck then you have to stick your arm down in the mud and lock them up to get your 4wd going, lol. Thats what my friend always ends up having to do when we go wheeling together.

 

how hard would it be to put in manuel locking hubs and were would i get them. but what would be causing the like cracking loud noise.