91 K5 terrible 4wd steering wander

[Blue85]

The thing is - sometimes an auto will spin the output a little in neutral. There's not enough torque to make any difference with the driveline engaged but with no load at all it will start to spin. This can cause the grinding when shifting between 4LO and 4HI. If the vehicle isn't moving, then grinding doesn't tell you anything about axle ratios.

But there should be no grinding when you shift into 4HI from 2HI as long as the hubs are locked. Even if you're moving, you should be able to shift smoothly between 2 and 4 wheel. If there is grinding there (while moving) then it points to mismatched gears or tires.

 

[Screamer27]

Blue85 is right. For some reason (that I don't care about right now) my idle is kicked up a little bit, and in neutral, it still spins the input shaft to the transfer case slowly. As long as I don't dilly dally going between gears, its fine. But since my body is resting on my t-case shifter, It dilly dallys on it's own.

Anyway, took a tape to the front tires yesterday, 79 1/2 at the fronts and 79 1/2 at the rear of the front tires, so thats not my issue. I pulled the rear driveshaft, and taped a plastic cup over the end. It still wandered, but not as bad as in 4wd, but still worse than 2wd. The over center adjustment is still a little tight on the steering gear so I loosened that up some, hoping that may fix it some. I then put marks on the pavement vs. tire sides, and then on rear pinion, rolled vehicle....

Mind you the truck I got the axles out of I had the front diff apart to rob parts out of. 41:11 = 3.73, when i had my front end apart, 41:11= 3.73 so I was 95 percent certain, that everything was a 3.73 Nope, the donor truck had 41:10 = 4.10 in the rear. So the donor truck (87 3/4ton) had a 3.73 front, and a 4.10 rear.

Needless to say, friends don't let friends go with the lower ratio, so I have a set of 4.10's on the way from Summit for the front.

 

[Corey 78K5]

Mind you the truck I got the axles out of I had the front diff apart to rob parts out of. 41:11 = 3.73, when i had my front end apart, 41:11= 3.73 so I was 95 percent certain, that everything was a 3.73 Nope, the donor truck had 41:10 = 4.10 in the rear. So the donor truck (87 3/4ton) had a 3.73 front, and a 4.10 rear.

Needless to say, friends don't let friends go with the lower ratio, so I have a set of 4.10's on the way from Summit for the front.

Well in that case let me be the first on the site to say......"Dumbass".

 

[rufusbooth]

Well in that case let me be the first on the site to say......"Dumbass".

Too funny!

In all seriousness, Glad you got it figured out.

Cheers,

Rufus

 

[Screamer27]

I'm glad I got it figured out, but honestly, what type of person puts a different gear in the back of a 4wd truck?!

It just doesn't make sense.

 

[BIG*RED]

I'm glad I got it figured out, but honestly, what type of person puts a different gear in the back of a 4wd truck?!

It just doesn't make sense.

It really isn't that uncommon from what I've seen, I know guys who never use their 4wheel drive(most of my friends who live in san diego), so to save money they just re-gear the rear, also know guys who can't afford to re-gear both axles at the same time so they start with just the rear, and I've known a couple guys who have broken their rear ends, and just grab an axle outta the junk yard, not caring what the ratio is, just so they can get their trucks back on the road.

 

[bp71k5]

took a tape to the front tires yesterday, 79 1/2 at the fronts and 79 1/2 at the rear of the front tires, so thats not my issue. I pulled the rear d

You do want a little bit of toe-in. Adding 1/8"-1/4" will probably help with the wandering as well.

 

[y5mgisi]

Was thinking about this and the more i think of it the more im impressed that you were actually able to even get to 35mph!