Just bought a 98 dodge ram 1500. It's a 5spd with the 318 motor. Unfortunatly I bought it at an auction so the first time I got it home went to try the 4WD and i'm getting this clicking noise coming from underneath. It gets even worse when i'm cornering. It drives fine in 2WD. Took it to a truck shop and they said it was my front axle U-Joints so I had that done along with the seals as one side was leaking pretty bad. 950 dollars later I get it back and on the way home I try the 4WD and its still there. Took it back and they wouldn't do a thing about it. Out of money I don't know where to start next. I'm mechanically inclined and tempted to tackle the job but don't know where to start. I crawled underneath and sounds like its coming from inside the transfer case. Could it be the shift linkage or any of the vacuum lines. Want to start with the basics before I start taking too many bolts out. Thanks for any help.

 

Thats probably the front drive shaft cardan joint.

 

+1 on front drive shaft. i think it has 3 u-joints ? not sure, 2 at the double carden do-lolly and one at the front diff yoke. it could be any of them clicking. you might be able to tell by wiggling them.

if you don't want to work on it yourself, you can remove your front drive shaft and take it to a drive line shop and have them replace the joints, then you reinstall. probably $150-200 doing it that way.

here's how it looks.
http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech-article-16.html

 

Thanks for the info. I'm starting to lean towards the U-joints on the front drive shaft. Will wait till my next day off from work to drop the front shaft out and replace the u-joints and see if that does the trick.

 

You have to replace the ball,spring and socket too.

 

Thanks fokes, I pulled the front drive shaft out and replaced all 3 u-joints and the ball, socket and spring. Everything appears mechanically sound now, no noise whatsoever in 4H or 4L and just in time for winter. We had our first snow fall last night, not much yet but its coming. Thanks again.

 

snow? **** its still 90* down here.

glad you got her fixed up. enjoy it.
let's see, you'll be needing this next.
http://dodgeram.org/tech/repair/4X4/4x4_engagment.htm

 

Yea, I need to move to a warmer climate someday. It's 41* here currently. Looked into that link. Found it quite interesting, you figure i'll be having problems with the engagement. I have to roll it forward and back sometimes to go back into 2H but everything seems fine.

 

yeah, the 4x4 is run off vacuum assist. So it can get screwey if one of the vac lines gets cracked.

Then people get the manual lock (posi lock) where you engage it in the cab. THat also makes it so you can drive in 2 lo and 2 hi.