Hi Guys! Looking for some answers and I've never experienced this issue yet....

2005 1500 5.7 135k

While taking about a 2 hour drive I felt my left front wheel starting to pull slightly at the begining of my trek, It was extremely icy for about 40 minutes so the truck was in 4wd and immediately taken out once the road cleared up.

After another hour of driving I noticed my fore arm was getting sore from holding the wheel. I went to switch hands and the truck pulled extrenely hard to the left! It slowly go worst and i smelled the faint odor of what I now know was gear oil burning.

I kept going to try to get it to my destination and about 30 minutes the gear oil smell was over whelming and was burning causing a lot of smoke. I pulled over and saw that it looks like the gear oil was shooting out of the overflow vent. I decidied to get it towed to my destination.

When loading it up onto the car dolly, it struggled for a second to move and then felt like something kind of broke free and allowed me to drive it up on the car dolly.

It switches into and out of 4dw with out any issues.

Any suggestions??? Thanks in advance!

 

maybe u ran low on gear oil or the oil failed, you may have burned up the front diff,

take off the front diff cover, and check how much fluid comes out, and if any debris in it

also check the teeth and if any hot spots on the gear

 

Checking the diff fluid and inspecting the gears would be my first action. When's the last time it was checked and/or changed?

 

I hasn't been checked or changed by me, I've had it for about 35k miles.

I will be back in the town where the truck was parked and that was the first thing I was going to check. By hot spots, do you mean like where the metal is worn?

Thanks for the replies!

 

That stuff's supposed to be done every 15K.

Hopefully it's nothing too serious, but changing diff fluid is as easy as changing your oil -- you don't even need a lift or a jack. Check out YouTube, there are a bunch of good videos there that show you how easy it is. With any luck you didn't cause any major damage inside. As for the switching in and out of 4WD, that would be your transfer case, and as long as nothing is wrong in there you will shift fine. It's whether the front end does its job or not is in question. Sounds like that gear oil was probably never changed, and it just failed.

*EDIT* If the front was never done, chances are the rear wasn't, either. Get in there STAT and give it new lube.