Squealing in my front end

[Smirty]

I am getting a constant squealing in my front end when driving over 20mph. It is pretty loud at first and then not as loud as I continue to drive...still quite noticable though. Interestingly though, when I engage 4wd, it goes away but comes back after I disengage. I checked my fluids in my my front diff and it is full. My drive shaft seems tight when I grab it. Could it be something in my transfer case? Could it be the U-joints in the drive shaft.

I have to admit, I noticed this about a month ago but wasn't happening all the time. It has gradually gotten worse and now it happens all the time. I am concerned something is wrong but hope just a little lube somewhere will fix it. Any ideas?

[78cj7]

Scott, have you checked your steering at all or does it sound like itis coming from the axle? Have you pulled your tires and checked your brakes to see if you have something stuck in the callipers or something?

[Smirty]

I pulled off my wheels and made sure the brakes were good...I had just put on new pads and rotors a few months ago. It is clean of any mud and debris. I am fairly certain its coming from somewhere between my diff and transfer case. Like I was saying earlier, it stops squealing when I engage 4wd high and returns as soon as I disengage it back to 2wd.

[RangerPaul]

Didn't you have to pull apart your shifter on McCaslin Mountain? Maybe a leftover from that?

[Ggg]

I don't know what vehicle you have so this is only a guess. Since it only happens in 2wd I would look at your stub shaft bearings if you have them. They axle only spins on them in 2wd not 4wd.

[CZAR]

You have a TJ...right?

If not....stop reading.


If so...check the CV joint in the front drive shaft. The ball inside likes to go bad on lifted TJ's due to the increased pinion angle. It may..or may not be greasable. Or...may need to be rebuilt/replaced.

Until I went to a high pinion on my old TJ. I had mine rebuilt about every 20-25K miles. I kept the last one a bit longer, cuz I made it a habit to pull it & grease it good at every other oil change...or before long road trips.

You can disconnect the front driveshaft at the pinion. Tie it up to the frame. Drive the Jeep. If the noise goes away...it's the CV end.

[Smirty]

Paul - I have not pulled off my broken shifter yet but from what I can tell it is engaged via a cable and that seems to work without any prob.

GGG - It certainly sounds like its coming from the center between the diff and transfer case. I dont think its coming from the stub shafts from what I can tell.

Czar - The ball joint in the CV drive shaft sounds more like the area it is coming from. I will pull the drive shaft this weekend and see if the sound goes away. Hopefully I have greasable joints...from what I read, they can be a bear to pull apart. Any tip/tricks to make the repair job easier?

[CZAR]

Czar - The ball joint in the CV drive shaft sounds more like the area it is coming from. I will pull the drive shaft this weekend and see if the sound goes away. Hopefully I have greasable joints...from what I read, they can be a bear to pull apart. Any tip/tricks to make the repair job easier?

If ya wantto tackle rebuilding it...there's a decent write up on Stu Olson's site.

You may get lucky and just need a good grease job. If the CV has a grease fitting, it will be the flat one that takes the needle type grease gun attachment. You will need to remove the shaft to grease it.

A driveshaft shop can rebuild or replace it at a fair price...or keep an eye on Ebay.

[Smirty]

I finally had some time yesterday and took out my front driveshaft. The good news is that after driving the Jeep around after it was removed, no more sounds...so Czar was right on the money indicating that it was the drive shaft. The bad news is that there are no grease fitting anywhere to speak of. The grease that surrounds the exposed part of the ball joint is gummy and dry so I would imagine that all of the grease is pretty much gone. I am going to give Rockford Drive Line a call and see about getting a new CV centering assembly and greasable U-Joints. After reading Stu's write-up, it doesn't seem to difficult.

[Smirty]

The driveshaft has been rebuilt. I will have to say, the rebuild was easy. If you can change a u-joint, you can rebuild a CV joint on your driveshaft. The joint is made up of two U-joints and a centering cup. If the cv joint begins to squeal like mine, you have a few options. You can either re-grease the centering cup, get a rebuld kit or just replace it. I decided to replace mine because the OEM version was not able to be greased (sealed unit). The replacement cup has a grease fitting and will now be easily maintained in the future...unlike before.:D

[grub]

Czar is a smart man. He knows his way around a Jeep.

[Ggg]

Smirty glad you got it fixed. After I read the post from Czar I realized how far off I was in my suggestions. I didn't mean to send you off on a wild gooes chase. I am not familiar with the "lock out-less" style front ends that DCX and Jeep use. Most likely I will not learn too much about them either as I am replacing that system on my TJ with 1-ton drivetrain.
I came across another TJ that had a front driveline joint seize up, I firured I would post pictures to illustrate how bad this can get if ignored.:eek:

[JLS]

that is not pretty at all...

I think I'm gonna rebuild mine just for the sake of it, at 130,000+ miles I'm sure it needs it...

:)

[RangerPaul]

Hey JLS, coming to The RPI III (http://tija.org/active_forums/showthread.php?p=8500#post8500)?

[RangerPaul]

I wish grub could come. :(

[JLS]

Hey JLS, coming to The RPI III (http://tija.org/active_forums/showthread.php?p=8500#post8500)?

I wish... too much stuff to get done on the jeep, and at home...

I'm sure you'll all have a great time, IF (that's a big if) I get caught up with everything I would come down and make a weekend out of it but I doubt it will happen.

:D