Hello all. Recently I was helping a friend get out of a ditch when I heard a pop in the front end. Now sporadically the wheel seems to bind and make a loud popping noise when turning. I have checked ball joints, track bar, tie rods, and everything else. I jacked up the front. I can turn the wheels and they turn freely from the passenger side. When I turn the driver side it goes for a minute then grabs and turns both front wheels like a locker but its an open diff. If I keep forcing it then it lets go and only turns one at a time again. Any advice?

 

to start I will throw a wild ass guess out there, could it possibly be a bad ujoint in either front axle drive shaft ? and when turning it binds the "bad ujoint" ?

 

Front diff damage perhaps during the tow. Take the cover off and do a visual for bits and pieces. That locking issue is concerning as the diff turns on the highway as well and you don't want locked wheels at speed.

 

+1 crack open the cover and get a look at the internals. if it weren't for that behavior of appear locked for a moment, i woulda just leaned towards u-joint.

 

Check your U joint ends for side to side slop.
I have a replacement Dorman front axle on my driver side that doesn't fully support the U-joint.
I have had a few times where the U-Joint caps get pushed out a little, and then I start getting some of those pops when in 4-wheel drive.

the final tale is a minor vibration at highway speeds, comes and goes.

I need to replace them with something better, but for now I'm looking at a set of safety wire pliers for the next time I center the damn U-Joint in order to help keep the stupid caps in place.

Dorman =