3FE, 32's, and 4:88's?

[jonheld]

If I'm not mistaken, Jon you told me on the 3FE list a loooong time ago that alot of the 80's shipped with dry flanges.
QUOTE]

True. There have been some total failures in early to mid 91s. Either lack of maintenance or dry assembly or combo of both. FWIW, mine has had the clunk since about 30K miles. There is a lot of slack in the FT4WD driveline. I replaced my drive flanges years ago with new ones. It made no difference, but my stub axles are original. I have 2 new birfields sitting in my parts bin. Fitting the drive flanges to the new birfields had less slop, but only marginally. Maybe I wanted to believe there was less play. If I lock the center diff all the clunking stops so I'm pretty sure my drive flanges/axle stubs are just dandy. I have been religious about changing fluids since she was a pup, so perhaps it is what it is.

 

[Land Speeder]

If I lock the center diff all the clunking stops so I'm pretty sure my drive flanges/axle stubs are just dandy. I have been religious about changing fluids since she was a pup, so perhaps it is what it is.

I've been intending to check this... and last night in traffic remembered to try it. I have exact symptoms when I engage the CDL (no clunk). So this eliminates the fact that it's anything up front? or points to the front drive shaft or forward?

 

[jonheld]

I've been intending to check this... and last night in traffic remembered to try it. I have exact symptoms when I engage the CDL (no clunk). So this eliminates the fact that it's anything up front? or points to the front drive shaft or forward?

To me it means that the majority of driveline slop is coming from the center diff. I guess the easiest thing to check would be to remove both drive shafts from the transfer case and rotate the drive flanges by hand with the CDL locked and open. I suspect you'll find a lot of slop with it open.

Again, mine has been clunking for years like this and I have always run good gear oil. Maybe it's just fine.