AUTOM8

My 98 4x4 has had driveline and trasmission issues for a few years. My driveline problem started at 30K miles so I called the dealer (I bought the truck with 16K miles). This is my first 4x4 so I asked about a tugging sensation I felt in the rear end when I accelerated from a stop. It felt like I was towing a small trailer with a slack rope. It would tug a few seconds after I started. The service advisor said this was a normal feeling for a 4x4 so not to worry. Getting only one opinion was my first mistake. My second was ignoring the problem when it got worse and was out of warranty (funny how life gets in the way of these things). It wasn't until I was having transmission issues that I did something about it. I went to a trusted mechanic and they found it was a defective driveline. The main driveline is in 2 parts. The booted joint between them was binding causing the tugging sensation. It just so happens Ford had a replacement driveline because they knew about the issue. Several hundred dollars later the tugging sensation was gone. Thats when the transmission issues really surfaced. Long story short, I had my trans rebuilt because of a bad pump and worn veins. Paid a couple of hundred more for 2 more years warranty. Driveline started acting up again last month. Called the mechanic for warranty info and I was 4 months past warranty.....Here we go again. I'm thinking of greasing the driveline to fix the problem. Anybody else had this problem??

Winded and tired,
AUTOM8

JohnnyO

I had the same thing on both my Rangers, a 99 and an 02. The fix was a new aluminum driveshaft from Ford. I was on warranty both times, you're not, but either get one or look around junkyards or eBay for an aluminum driveshaft. Also if the front yoke gets dried out that can bind. Pull the shaft, spray the yoke out good with brake cleaner, re-lube it with synthetic grease, and put it back and see how it is.

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'05 Sport Trac 4x4, L/S, torsion lift, extended shackles, 265's
'03 Taurus wagon, Silverstars, Yoko TRZ's
If you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
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WELDERJEFFO

I had that driveline prob with my bronco II.
I pulled the shaft and took it to a driveline shop that changed the factory joint to regular greasable u-joints.
No probs with it after that.
My buddy bought the Bronco from me 3 years ago and still hasn't had a prob with the driveline.

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Don't own a Ford, but I've worked on quite a few.