Go to a parking lot. (preferably, a BIG one.) find a spot where you can drive a good distance SLOWLY in a straight line. Put it in 4 wheel drive, and just idle along at 5-10 mph. If it starts binding, you have trouble.

Are the front and rear tires the same size??

 

If the gears were changed there is a good chance that the po put some type of locker in it. That would explain the pulling around. You would have to pull the cover of to verify this.

 

Sure you can, just don't use 4wd. Hell you can even use 4wd on slick surfaces if you have to but it certainly isn't recommended.

 

Ya front and rear tires are the same brand new 35x12.5r15s. So i just tried putting it in 4hi and 4low in a flat parking lot and it doesnt go anywhere without giving it excessive gas which i didnt have the ***** to do at this point. Does anyone have any clue what that means? Different sized gears front and rear? Bad front gears? I dont have a clue at this point. If i was to take off the diff cover what do i look for to see if the gears are bad besides the obvious grinded up parts...? I also have to reverse out of the 4x4 to get it back in 2wd or else the front end thuds out of it. Again i dont know what that entirely means either.

 

1. crank the truck and shift to 4wd. ease it around until the 4wd light comes on. block the wheels, leave it in neutral, and shut off the engine.
2. assuming an open differential, jack up one side. mark the 6 o'clock position on the tire and the drive shaft with a piece of tape.
3. with an assistant, rotate the jacked up tire exactly 2 revolutions and count the revolutions of the drive shaft. it will be a number like 3.55 or 3.92 or 4.11 or 4.56 or 4.88

that's your gear ratio.
the 2 revolutions is because of the turning of the spider gears.
leave one tire on the ground or you get inconsistent results with the spider gear motions.

if you have a locking mechanism and one tire won't turn with the other on the ground, then jack up both and turn the tire 1 revolution.

 

Thanks for all the info i will try to get that done tomorrow and let you know what i find out.

 

Ok so i checked out the front and rear gears. It turns out i have 3:92 in the front and 4:56 in the rear. So now my question is do i only need to repace the front ring and pinion to a 4:56 or is there other parts that i have to swap as well. It does have the dana 44 and i am getting the thick r/p so that i dont have to get a new carrier. Is this a job you can do your self or does it require special tools?

 

Special tools and know how. Have some one do it(don't mess around). Check around and see if you have a local shop that is capable.

 

Basically, if you have to ask, have a shop do it. Be careful though, there are a lot of sloppy shops out there who don't care.

 

i'll bet that was a real mother****er to try and drive down the road...

have your gears installed by a shop and ask for warranty on parts and labor, included new axle seals. ask them to check your u-joints while its apart.