Popping noise for the first time when I turned right today, so I got under the truck and I can turn my front driveshaft by hand with the truck in park, and the 4x4 In 2h. When I do this however, my front driver cv shaft shakes from the front diff. (Same sound as when I turned into my driveway earlier also) I've only had the truck about a month, and haven't used the 4x4 yet. (Was told it didn't work, have yet to check out why)

 

Sounds like a 1500, popping noise is generally a bad joint. Not sure what you mean by "shakes from the front diff". Maybe take a video?

 

Won't let me post the video. We are homesteading, and don't have a computer, and my phone records in MP4 for some reason. I'll try to explain it and then I'll get on trying to convert the file. When I grab the front drive shaft and I try to turn it, it turns, then it meets a little bit of resistance, but you can push past that and where the CV axle goes into the front differential will rattle up and down. It doesn't turn, it just rattles up and down. Like maybe it's engaged, but the gears are stripped or broken, maybe it's only halfway engaged. The passenger side doesn't turn or rattle or anything when I turn the front drive shaft but its in 2h, so I don't expect that it should. This is the second four-wheel drive vehicle I've ever had the last one was back in 2004 I had a 87 4Runner. I usually stick to bigger older two wheel drive trucks though.

 

Its been a long time since I worked on the 1500 front end, but I think the axle just slips into the diff and there is an internal clip that locks it. You'll likely need to pull that axle out to see what is going on. Hope that its just the axle splines are shot and not the diff, because its easy to switch axles (once you get them free from the wheel bearing side). When I replaced the wheel bearings, I also pulled and replaced both axles just as a maint thing. The wheel bearings can be a pain to remove because they are generally heavily oxidized into place, I think you have to remove the wheel bearing to get the axle out - unless you can remove the steering knuckle and wheel bearing as a unit and get the axle out that way.

If you look at the picture, the recessed spline is the part that goes into the diff. Internally there is a expanding clip on the male spline, that that recessed slips into. If you've got it loose there, someone likely left it in 4x4 on dry pavement and turned the wheels and broke something in there.

 

Thanks for the help. I started to tear into it, and got as far as getting the wheel off. The CV axle had just slipped off. Is the expanding clip In side the female spline end, or on the male spline end? Regardless I think it's missing. I'm assuming it's something like the retainer ring on an impact gun

 

You’ll most likely need both shafts, yes there are two shafts each side. I work in garage and just dealt with this. The splines were so worn on both halves that there was slop as your describing, and the shafts DO NOT like to separate…Wheel bearing side and diff side is easy….and there was a bad carrier bearing. So you’ll most likely need some work…

i stress the shafts cuz when I did axle seals on my truck last year, I couldn’t separate the two and it you can’t there’s not enough room to clear bump stop that’s part of your frame. They MUST be separated….so on mine after 4 hours of torching to cherry red, and smashing with a 10lb sledgehammer, I said screw it and used torch to cut both shafts on both sides and got the 4 new ones

 

I think you get that axle out of there and it will become obvious what you need to replace. Attached is a page out of the factory service manual on how to remove the axle shaft from the diff. As you can see in the diagram, the snap ring is on the male end that is attached to the diff.

 

All right so yeah that snap ring is missing. It either broke off or is just gone, I can actually slip the CV female end right back over the male end, but there's no bite to make it stay. Without removing the knuckle or the bearing I can actually slip it off enough to see where the snap ring is supposed to be.

The guy I bought the truck from told me that the front end needed some interlock pin or something to work. He said he paid a shot 500 bucks to put it in then he drove the truck home and let it sit for a couple months. Any hopped in it and put it in four wheel drive and he heard a grinding clicking popping noise coming from the front end. I am guessing that that clicking popping noise was the female end slipping off the diff.

He also said he changed the cvs himself, (touts himself as a mechanic) and well based on some of his other work that I've seen on this truck I could very well see him not putting that snap ring back on there, or replacing it if it needed it. When I slipped the female end over the male end there is like a small sort of a click to get it in but it doesn't take really any Force to pull it off, and like I said I can tell that the snap ring isn't in there because I can see the groove.

That being said when I slipped the female end over the male end, the noise stops. When I was turning the front drive shaft, the shaking of the CV that I was seeing was because it had come off of the male spline end, so those spines were just barely touching each other and causing the CV to jump up and down.

 

Not sure if you can get JUST that snap ring.... Worth having a chat with the dealer in any event.

 

When I replaced my stub shafts I literally welded a bolt to the end of the shafts and used a slide hammer to try and pop them out. Still needed to pull the cover and pry off the c-clip on the passenger side shaft. The stub shafts are cheap.