So, yesterday, I had the front end of my 2006 4x4 Dakota elevated to find a rattle. While I had the front wheels off the ground, I spun the driver's side front wheel and it freewheeled like I expected. When I went to spin the passenger side front wheel, it only moved a couple of inches then "caught". Having it move the front drive shaft doesn't surprise me. Having it actually have resistance at the transfer case DID surprise me. I ran it in "Park" and "Neutral", but couldn't try it in gear because the end wasn't elevated.

I have had the front wheels off the ground plenty of times, but never noticed this behavior before. (but I never checked for it, either)

Is this normal for a 2006 4x4 Dakota? I don't want to think that there could be a problem with the transfer case.

 

my 05 4x4 does that aswell never really put to much thought into it though

 

I havent ever checked either...

 

Going way back when, (4 months ago) I replaced my sway bar end links with the ones from Rockauto.com. At the time, I had the polyurethane bushings in and when I replaced the end links, I used the bushings that came with them. Well, they didn't last very long. When I checked to see if they were the cause of the rattle, they were already cracked. They weren't the cause of the rattle, but I put the poly bushings back on to make myself feel better.

After checking everything, I determined that it was my driver side caliper rattling around a bit. I had noticed that if I went over something like a crack in the road, I would hear a rattle...but not when braking. Comparing the movement on the driver and passenger side led me to believe that is the caliper slides that are "slightly" loose in the caliper mount. I packed a little more grease in the slide holes and the rattle has gone away for now.

I think it has to do with the after market slide pins that I put in a while ago. One of them was stuck when I was working on the brakes and I had to remove it. When I bought the kit to replace them, I replaced both of them with the ones from the kit. I think they are just a hair smaller than the stock ones and that caused the rattle. I was more concerned that it had to do with the leveling kit than anything else. Speaking of the leveling kit...has anybody had a problem with torn upper ball joint boots? I noticed mine was torn, but I think it was from the ice we had a couple weeks ago. When I called the Dodge dealer, the parts guy told me they don't sell just the boot and the entire upper control arm had to be replaced at a cost of $228.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one with a non-free wheeling passenger side front wheel. That does make me feel better...unless there is a problem with stuck transfer cases on ours.

 

Check your brake caliper. I had mine lock up and needed to replace the caliper, pads and rotor. It was my understanding that this was fairly common on the Dakota

 

This was actually the first thing I checked. The caliper isn't locked up and the rotor moves freely through the brake pads. The resistance is through the driveshaft to the transfer case.