My passenger front axle shaft might be bent, or it's bushing for the CAD system. I'm going to check it when I pull it out to do the little bushing that aligns the halves for the CAD. Anyone know the cheapest place to buy the shaft, or maybe someone happens to have one laying around. I want to have a replacement on hand when I tear the axle apart.

 

Check junkyards near by. Other than that, there are a lotta places online that sell them, and also places that sell one piece axles, that eliminate the CAD.

 

edit - i doubt that your axle is bent. its a serious hunk of steel, and if it was bent - it would wobble and shake the hell out of your front end.


new ones are REAL expensive - like $200. go to the junkyard.

i took my shafts out a couple of weeks ago to change seals, cad bushings, axle u-joints, etc, and found my alignment problem that caused the cad collar to be hard to engage/disengage.

i had a little play in the bushings, but the biggest problem was burrs on the axle splines, which made the collar very tight. i filed all the sharp edges and corners off the splines and collar and it slides much much better now.

this was disappointing - i had put in a new passenger side seal just a couple of weeks before while doing that u-joint. to get the inner axle out i had to knock and (and ruin) that new seal. and to replace the drivers side seal you have to pull the diff. i used sheriff's trick of using a come-along.

 

i doubt that your axle is bent. its a serious hunk of steel, and if it was bent - it would wobble and shake the hell out of your front end.


Well, I went out to the desert, hit a bump harder than I shoudl have. Had my tires aired down to less than 20 PSI. Landing was enough to bend the rim so bad, it will never hold air. Also at that point, 4x4 went out. Could just be the bushing and/or bearing in the CAD system, which I already have, but interesting time for it to go out. I get no vibration, but in the morning when it's cold out, I get a noise that slowly gets louder then softer, happens a few times then stops. Only happens when I hit 70+ on the freeway, sounds like a knobby off road tire.

PS I checked everything in the CAD, it works great, the collar itself won't slide over. I was planning on using a cable actuator for the CAD, 2low is nice to have on hand.

 

oh....
your axle may be broken, most likely in the necked down area.
the axle material is so hard - it tends to break rather than bend.

 

Ah. Is there a way to check, besides pulling the axle? And is it normal that I've been driving the truck for over 6 months without a problem, other than 4wd doesn't work, and the little bit of noise I get?

Now, when I have the CAD housing off, and I spin the tire, the axle spins at the CAD collar, too...

 

if the axle turns all the way to the collar, then its not broken, unless its snapped on a slight angle that slips under torque, probably not.

the hub and knuckle carries all the weight of the truck, so its possible to remove the inner axle and still drive the truck. i'm not sure if you can also remove the outer stub shaft and still drive it or not. i'd have to think about it. the axle just provides the driveline propulsion in 4wd, or freewheels in 2wd

i'm really curious what your noise is ?

 

Okay, so it's not snapped. If could still be bent, though, but if the hub and knuckle carry all the weight, then how could it bend? All of this happened after I hit a bump too hard out in the desert, and landed hard enough to bend the front passenger rim (I was aired down too low). Right after that I threw on the spare, and drove out, but when I would go to put in in 4wd, nothing would happen.

If I try to move the collar over by hand, it doesn't just slip over. I have to spin the passenger wheel, and coax it over.

The noise is a hum, like an off road tire makes on asphalt. But, it only does it in the morning. I start my truck, let it warm up a few minutes, then drive 5-10 minutes to the freeway. Once I get up to 70 or 80, the noise starts real quiet, slowly gets louder, then gets quiet again. If I shift into neutral, there is no change in the noise. It may happen 2 or 3 times, then it stops and I don't hear it agian until the next morning. After work, when I get on the freeway, the noise doesn't happen.