Ratcheting sound when I accelerate... (1 Viewer)

[BoozerCroozer]

I'm getting a ratcheting sound when I accelerate. Could this be coming from my front diff? I plan on checking all the fluids over the long weekend anyway, but I was just curious what you folks thought.

Thanks.

 

[lowtideride]

not unless your hubs are locked.

 

[BoozerCroozer]

My mechanic told me it may be diff noise due to old/low diff fluid. There is a ratcheting noise coming from somewhere.

 

[lowtideride]

3rd member doesnt spin inless you are in 4 wheel drive or that the hubs are locked.

 

[flowman]

This is a stupid question, but you don't say...does your rig have a locker in the front? (Just don't know how new the rig is to you...)

Is it really a ratcheting, or could it be described as a bunch of marbles rattling in a muffled can? I've been hearing that lately when I accelerated, and I think it's engine pinging. Suggesttion I got was to retard the timing--haven't had a chance to try yet.

 

[Heartworm]

Check your levers

I had a bad experience once with a Ford pickup where my son had bumped the in/out lever for the 4WD so that it was just partially engaged. The shop pulled the entire transmission and T-case only to discover the lever. Mucho bucks down tube.

 

[tcb]

Check to see if both of your locking hubs turn freely. Mine made a similar noise when my passenger side hub was siezed up, it showed being in the "free" position, but once I got it apart I realized that the pawl was bent to hell and the hub was kind of half-a$$ locked. I bent the pawl back into shape and reassembled, no more noise and the hub operates smoothly. Just a thought.

 

[BoozerCroozer]

The sound is definitely a ratcheting sound. I know the marbles in a can sound and I think that might be spark knocking. That's not what I am hearing however. I checked the hubs, and they both move smoothly and are in the free position. I will check my 4WD stick to make sure it's in 2H.

The truck is fairly new to me, so I'm not sure if it has a locker on the front diff. I was under the impression that a locker would only make noise when you are turning due to the wheels spinning at different speeds. I didn't think they made noise when you were driving straight.

 

[lowtideride]

jack it up on jack stands, and spin the wheel if they both rotate the same direction your locked brotha...

 

[BoozerCroozer]

If I spin one will the other one automatically spin? Or should I try to spin one wheel one direction and the other the opposite way?

 

[Doc]

It sounds like a roller coaster ride on the way up the BIG hill, right? click click click click....

My rig does it too, and ONLY under load, right? It's an exhaust leak. No big deal.

Well, that's what it is on my truck.

 

[3pits]

I had the same problem,, :
I had the exhaust leak happend and was really noticable at idle if I got out to open a gate

then I realized my headers were leaking, and were noisy in the first place

but when it happend while I was accelerating, I found a stick stuck in my ujoint and it hit the underside of the body when I accelerated....

good luck

 

[lowtideride]

just spin one wheel and see if it spins the same direction as the one you are spinning if it does you got a locker...if it doesnt you dont. if it is an exhaust leak, you can use sea foam to find it.

 

[sportbiker929]

Sea foam for exhaust leaks? How does that work?

 

[WAVEPIMP]

yeah, how does seafoam work to find exhaust leaks? I just bought mine (fj60)and noticed a exhuast leak at either the intake/exhaust gasket or the smaller one where the exhaust header flange bolts to the exhaust pipe. But then again it could be a cracked exhaust header (doubtful) but you never know. It would be nice to figure out a way to find the leak before I start tearing into it.

So post up and let us know how this seafoam stuff works.

Thanks James G.

 

[toyman317]

I need the same thing.

 

[lowtideride]

pull the vac line off your brake booster and pull a half cup of sea foam thru it. trust me, if its leaking you'll see it.

 

[WAVEPIMP]

WORD!

i'll give it a try. thanks for the info.

laters

 

[batman]

When I was in High School my friends and I would take thoes really long zip ties and strap it to the drive shaft that way when the started to drive they would hear the click click click noise and it would only get faster as they drove faster. and when they stopped it stopped. Great trick to play on friends. If I had a local friend with a LC I would do it to his to see if he would post a question about it on here... Thoes were the days!!!!

 

[toyman317]

so where do you get this sea foam?