Last Fall I bought a 1997 Ram 3500 4X4. It currently has a little over 37,500 miles on it, of which I've put on about 1000 of them.

We all know how the steering feels when the 4 wheel is engaged... My trucks steering feels the same when the 4 wheel is disengaged...

Yesterday I put the front end on jack stands... I then engaged, and disengaged the 4 wheel drive... The axles tied together, and unlocked so I know the actuator is performing as it should.

I also couldn't detect any issues with the bearings, or the u-joints on the axles.

I should add that the truck was locked in 4wheel all Winter... I only used it on the road once... About a 40 mile round trip... Other than that, I only moved it out of the way so I could plow snow...

Any ideas?

 

Well, no actually, I don't know exactly what you're describing by saying it feels like 4wd is engaged.

I live in CO and have driven with 4wd on the road plenty, but perhaps you could be more specific?

Are you experiencing wander or increased tracking with imperfections in the road? Or are you experiencing heavy steering? Or?

 

When I have to steer hard I feel the tug/wobble on the steering wheel as if the 4wheel was locked in...

I ran this truck quite a bit last Fall, and don't remember feeling that tug/pull on the steering wheel when the 4wheel was disengaged... I know that by design, the front axles are always turning, so maybe what I'm feeling is normal, I just don't remember feeling it last year...

There are no issues on the highway, or when making easy turns...

 

No you shouldn't get binding when steering like that. But in order for this to occur BOTH your t-case and CAD would have to be malfunctioning together.

Or if you have a front locker or aggressive LSD then only the CAD need malfunction- maybe.

This occurs even long after disengaging 4wd? The shift to 2hi is not immediate

 

Think I would start with getting a front end alignment....

 

Though it wasn't the t-case, I'm glad you mentioned it... While I was checking the t-case, which is functioning properly, I finally got bright enough to put a pry bar on the front axle u-joints.. the RF u-joint is bad...

The other day when I had it on the jack-stands I just did a visual/hearing inspection of the joints,and didn't detect the issue... Not sure why I wasn't bright enough to try the pry-bar the other day?

Anyway... I thought of the pry-bar as I was checking the t-case, so thanks for mentioning it!

 

Yeah since the stubs are always tied to the wb splines the u-joints must always turn whenever its front wheel is turning. I could see a dry u-joint causing your symptoms as u-joints actually must speed up and slow down as they spin at an angle