Clicking from front axle when turning

Hey guys,

I think I know the answer to this already, but want to be sure.

A couple months ago, I began to hear a high-pitch clicking sound (speed-dependent) coming from the left side of my front axle when turning. Eventually, I found a bit of play in my axle shaft U-joint on that side, so I replaced both of them with some crap-ass Neapcos from Advanced Auto Parts (Brute Force).

All was well and good for a few weeks, then the click started to come back... Faint at first (maybe 2 to 3 clicks per rotation of the wheel), but now it sounds like someone flipping through a deck of playing cards when turning. No visible play in the joint, but I'm guessing that at least the driver side U-joint is already crapping out.

Am I somewhat on base here? If so, I'm going to just buy proper Spicer 760x joints and call it a day to avoid this pain in the ass for (hopefully) a while longer moving into the future.

Does the noise happen when turning slow or all the time?

When you say hi pitch click, to me high pitch squeak would sound more like a really bad joint. ESP in 4wd.

Do you have a lot of lift?

Altho the brute force joints are crap...I would say having it go out after a few weeks of normal driving is highly unusual. You could pull the axle and see if maybe the joint is binding, possibly a needle bearing fell out during installation or something.

Try to pin point the noise to the u joint before spending more money on it. If it is bad, I would have them replace it, if you kept you receipt or course, but thats just me.

The noise is only audible when turning at slow speeds (<15 MPH). It very well may occur at higher speeds, however, there are too many other sounds (including tire noise, etc.) to hear it if it does.

I have 4.5" of lift - so not a lot of lift, but I'm definitely at the threshold where problems begin to make themselves known.

Ultimately, I may need to just lift the front axle and spin the front wheels as fast as I can at full lock to get a better idea of where the noise is coming from. Given that it went away after replacing the U-joint, but slowly came back, I'm still leaning toward that being the issue.

The sound is most accurately described as that of thumbing through a deck of playing cards, with it occurring through about 50% of the rotation of the wheel (in a full rotation, it clicks for half the turn, then is silent for the other half). When the noise first started I honestly thought it was due to pebbles stuck in the tread of the tire, but alas, it is not. Both front and rear differentials are open, so it's not an autolocker contributing to this sound. I thought it might be the tube seals making the noise, but I'm having problems imagining how they could make such a sound.

Are you sure one of your jackass friends didn't put a ziptie on the axleshaft? :anon:

hose clamps on the driveshaft are another fun one.

Hehe, quite fortunately, I'm confident of that . None of my friends in NC are even remotely vehicle-savvy, so they wouldn't even know what the axle shaft is for.

I'm really thinking it is the axle shaft U-joints given the fact that the sound went into remission following the last replacement, but slowly came back... I did pound the piss out of one of the bearing caps with a 5-lb hammer during the installation, which could have deformed it enough to cause premature failure. Who knows - I should spring for 760x U-joints anyway, so this is just an excuse.

I did pound the piss out of one of the bearing caps with a 5-lb hammer during the installation, which could have deformed it enough to cause premature failure.

Click to expand...

Not good...it should only take a few taps from a small hammer to install. You might have cracked a needle bearing and a little piece was sitting on the bottom of the cap, or something of that nature, and preventing the cap from seating properly.

If your using a hammer and socket for u joints brute force is needed to get the old ones oout, finesse and patients are needed to get the new ones in. If you need to pound something is wrong, take the cap out and start over.