Real Time Roadside help. Grinding popping sound driving forward but not reverse (1 Viewer)

[78f150tx]

Need some help. I am out camping and I have developed a pretty severe popping and grinding coming from the driver side front wheel. It only occurs in drive and not reverse. Doesn't matter if I'm going fast or slow.
Have not been off-road. Drove an hour on the freeway and discovered it when I rolled down my window to drive down a forest service road.
Truck does not pull left or right.
Going to pull the front wheel and have a look.
Any advice?

 

[Grego]

Check to see the c clip is still attached to the end of the half shaft. It may have popped off, allowed the axle to back out of the splines in the hub. That or the splines are worn and slipping in the hub. Pop the dust cap off and it should be pretty obvious.

 

[78f150tx]

I'll give that a shot. Thanks.

 

[78f150tx]

Update, work kept me away from the 100 for a couple of weeks. Back trying to solve my problem.

Looking for some feedback on where I go from here.

To date this is what I’ve done.

Nothing appears to be loose or out of place.

Brakes appear to be working properly. Disconnected the speed sensor on the driver side to see if the abs was malfunctioning and grabbing. No change.

Removed front drive shaft and flanges. With the center diff locked I can drive and the popping,grinding and squeal are gone.

Fearing I had blown up my front diff I drained the fluid. No big chucks of metal or any shavings to speak of. I spun the diff forwards and backwards and there does not appear to be any binding or rough skipping. Ill try attaching some photos and a short video of the diff as I spin it. Admittedly I don’t have much experience with diffs.

My next step was to pull both cv axles and inspect. I aborted an earlier attempt to reboot. I couldn’t get the passenger side axle to release from the diff and we were headed out of town so I postponed the job. Both sides are leaking so maybe they need to be serviced. But neither one pops when turning with wheel at full lock.

Any feedback and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

Diff plug.

 

[78f150tx]

Having trouble uploading a video. Here is a photo of the drain hole.

Cannot feel any metal shavings or pieces if I stick my finger inside. My fingers are crossed it’s not a gear issue.

 

[Julian Stead]

Put your flanges back on without your front driveshaft and see if the noise returns. If it does then it is either in the front diff or CV axles. If not then look at your driveshaft.