Alright, i'm brand new to the board. I bought a 1999 Ram 1500 SLT Laramie 2 months ago. Reg. cab, short bed, 4X4. Has been running beautifully until as of late. There was a noise coming from the left front area a week ago, and has now gone away. No big deal, right? Well not exactly. Seems that noise has now been replaced with a sort of loose steering problem. Seems that when i turn the wheel at low speeds or from a stopped position to turn a corner, it gets this wobble in the steering wheel. Feels almost like trying to turn at low speeds with a flat. I have gone under and checked, and nothing seems to be loose. There is, however, grease coming out from the axle housing on the left side.

Another problem, is the 4wd light shudders off and on. Almost in sync with the revolution of my wheel. Most of the time it will do this, but then sometimes it won't. I DO know, however, that i made a huge error in trying to shift from 2H to 4L without putting the drivetrain in N and got that god-awful grinding noise and some bad jerks. I am new to 4wd's, as i have never had one before. Any help with all this would be greatly appreciated, as i am a noob in need of help.

 

Welcome to DF.

Not sure what you have going on with your axle, but I have a comment on the 4wd light shuddering off and on with the rotation of the wheel. I had this happen to me, and it was the result of a vacuum leak. The 4x4 release is vacuum actuated. I did not have enough vacuum in the system (due to the leak), so it was taking forever for 4 wheel drive to disengage. The symptom was the 4x4 light staying on for a very long time, and the light blinking in sync with the rotatation of the tire. The other symptom of my vacuum leak was that my ac or heater would switch to the defrost position when I got on the throttle or the engine got under load (like when going up a hill).

I had a tiny hole burned in the vacuum line that runs along the passenger side frame rail next to the exhaust. It was cheap and easy to fix, just replaced that vacuum line.

This is just one possible fix to your problem. Could be it is related to the rest of the axle/4x4 issues you discribed. Good luck.

 

Well, i think you just solved one of the problems. When going up a steep hill or while accelerating the A/C cuts out and will not throw out any air. I will have to get to fixing that ASAP. Now if i can only get that turning problem fixed... Thanks again, you were a great help.

 

I think i may have solved the problem of the grease coming out at the axle. I think, after reading topics under the search of "Axle", that it may be the axle seal? I'm still not 100% sure on this, but the grease is coming out right as the axle leaves the housing. Anyways, i still don't know what is causing that steering problem. I checked the steering shaft (not sure on tech. term) and the shaft seemed lose. Not sure if that may be the cause, but we'll wait and see as I am taking her in to get her checked out tomorrow. I love this truck and all the options with it. Couldn't imagine getting rid of 'er. Thanks again in advance, all the help is greatly appreciated.