[Mr onetwo]

Good morning all,
My 1992 Dakota 5.2 AT 4wd club cab (204K) let me down for the first time in a long time yesterday.I was on my way to the lumber yard and pulled up to a stop sign a half a mile from my house.When I went to pull out the truck made a big banging sound and then a loud clattering under the floor.The truck just coasted to the side of the road and would not move while still clattering.I put it in 4wd to see if it would move and it made a light clunk and moved forward.I pulled it into a parking lot and tried it in reverse. It moved fine and made no funny noises so I limped it home at 10mph.Tried it in 2wd when I got it home and same clattering/no move condition.
Any ideas on what this is? I realize that it is probably internal, but is there anything external to check before I pull the tcase? Thanks!

 

[Mr onetwo]

Also, is it safe to drive like this or will it totally strand me on the side of the road?

 

[radioactive]

It is not healthy for your drive train to drive in 4WD on pavement. Period.

 

[02GenDakota]

It is not healthy for your drive train to drive in 4WD on pavement. Period.

Not healthy at best, catastrophic at worst.

 

[nwrensch]

Good morning all,
My 1992 Dakota 5.2 AT 4wd club cab (204K) let me down for the first time in a long time yesterday.I was on my way to the lumber yard and pulled up to a stop sign a half a mile from my house.When I went to pull out the truck made a big banging sound and then a loud clattering under the floor.The truck just coasted to the side of the road and would not move while still clattering.I put it in 4wd to see if it would move and it made a light clunk and moved forward.I pulled it into a parking lot and tried it in reverse. It moved fine and made no funny noises so I limped it home at 10mph.Tried it in 2wd when I got it home and same clattering/no move condition.
Any ideas on what this is? I realize that it is probably internal, but is there anything external to check before I pull the tcase? Thanks!

Put it in two wheel drive and have someone watch the drive shafts if the front one is turning while standing still the front end has a problem like broken axle or differential, same for the rear end, if neither one is turning then check the front cv joint or its something internal in the transfer case like differential or chain. But it is definitely something broke, but I would make that check before pulling anything apart. No sense in taking something apart if you are not sure it is broke.

 

[radioactive]

Just armchair QB'ing here -- but if it drives in 4WD and not in 2WD, that tells me that it's a problem with power getting to the rear axle. So I'd probably put it up on jackstands and watch the output shafts from the TC. It's either going to be the TC itself or the driveshaft/u-joints heading to the rear axle.

 

[Mr onetwo]

I forgot I posted here and decided I should post up the result of this problem.It turned out to be the passenger side axle shaft and bearing.The splines were ripped off the shaft because the bearing had failed.Found a used shaft on car-part.com. Installed new bearings and sealed both sides and cleaned and refilled the diff with gear oil and additive. Works like a charm now.Hopefully this will help someone else out of a bind.

 

[immattj]

Thanks for the update.

 

[radioactive]

Makes sense -- only the stripped side was spinning.