The Carden joint started squeaking yesterday and the truck was vibrating. This is in 2 wheel drive too. I checked the joints and they are tight. So I took it off and the ball joint is worn and making the squeak. I just used the truck to go get something and no vibration with the shaft removed. How can the front shaft cause a vibration when in 2wd ? I thought it had no load on it when in 2wd.

 

not real sure, but thinking out loud,
the driver side axle turns with the wheel, can't stop that.
the motion has to continue through the path of least resistence through the spider gears, across the ring gear to the passenger side inner axle. if the ring gear turns, then the drive shaft has to also turn.

i'm not sure where i'm going with this...
i think the axle motion can be completely aborbed by the spider gears, and not turn the ring/pinion.

is it possible that your posilok is engaged, coupling the 2 axles? i think this would force the ring, pinion, driveshaft to turn.

 

OMG, it was engaged. Yesterday morning when I backed up the driveway I had to use 4wd. Atleast I know the vibration is caused by the Carden joint. And since I have a clunking issue when reversing in 4wd, I know the the TC chain at the very least is a prob. Now I'm wondering what, if any, other damage I may have caused to the TC by having the axles locked. Only good thing is I only drove about 5 miles. And BTW, I'm embarrassed to say, I have not hooked up the 4wd lite switch yet, as I'm trying to figure out a way to do it without cutting the factory plug off. Damn, what an idiot! LOL

 

nope, can't be done. note that the light connector is now on the passenger side, whereas it used to be on the drivers side of the cad. so you actually need a lot less wire. in order to save your oem plug, cut the wire about 2 or 3 inches up from the plug, so that you could recrimp it with butt connectores somewhere in the future. then crimp on some ring connectors to your old wires. i attached a little wire holder up on one of the top cad bolts.

edit - you didn't hurt anything by driving with cad engaged. they're made to be used.

similar story - a couple of months ago i went to use my 4wd and the stupid posilok button was froze up. i used 2wd low instead. got done and pulled it out of low and shifted to 4wd high instead of 2wd high. stupid posilok was not engaged, so i didn't feel any binding, but i did sort of, kinda, notice a little more noise, but it didn't register. i drove it in 4hi for about 3 weeks.

 

Well I still have the factory wire holder on the top bolt of the CAD. Just need to find a plug that will go into the factory one and make a little pigtail. And funny thing is, that when I got to where I was going today, I had to make a sharp turn and noticed the steering didn't feel right when I made the turn, LOL. What a dumb @$$.

 

BTW, got this Torque King setup I ordered yesterday.http://www.quad4x4.com/Dodge%201994-...driveshaft.htm

 

just cut the factory plug off leaving about 2-3 inches of wire with it. trying to find a mating plug is going to be an unnecessary pita. the plug you are trying to match is part of the oem switch. definitely not worth the effort.

 

I know! LOL I just want to try, because living where I do, butt connectors are not going to last long. I am going to solder and use shrink wrap as a last resort. And if I sell it, I want to be able to put the factory CAD setup back in.