Hey guys. I think I might have a broken ring gear in my front end. My 4Runner had 214,000 miles on it. I took it off road, then the next day when I attempted to drive my truck in 4 wheel drive it clunked in the front end very rythmatic depending on my speed. Only 4 wheel hi and lo. NO problems in 2 hi. My truck is a manual transmission. I replaced both CV shafts because the boots had rip and there was dirt in the joints. Why the is it still clunking? Is it in the differental? Ring gear tooth broken? Transfer case? I dunno, thanks for the help.

 

The clunking may be from driving it in 4wd on the street. The drivetrain binds up and the clunking could be from that. If you have manual hubs, does it make the sound while they are unlocked? Or while the hubs are locked and it is in 2wd?

I would think that if you broke the ring gear you would have heard some catastrophic sounding bang before.

 

u-joints maybe/ jack up the front end and spin the tires and see if the diff is making that noise. if you need a front diff i just sent my core back to ZUK, i am sure he could build you one pretty quick.

 

What year 4runner and a.d.d. or not

 

I had a similar problem on my tuck. I swapped out the axle, thinking the sound was coming from the front, and still had the sound. Swapped out transfer case, and still had the sound. Ended up being a cracked tranny to xfer case coupling. It allowed it to drive fine in 2wd, even with hubs locked, but when the torque was applied from 4 wheel drive, it would cause the coupling to spin around the shaft. Just a thought.

 

Damn I hope I don't have 81Red's problem. I'll look into it.

>It makes the noise on or off pavement even in snow.
>I don't have manual Hubs.
>I think it has a.d.d one of my friends said that may be a problem.
It didn't want to go into 4wheel drive a few weeks ago.

>tortis who/What is ZUK?

 

It could be the any of the gears in the differential. I've broken all of them, not at once, but on several incidences combined. My guess is your ring gear too. And likely the pinion gear is also damaged. I've busted a couple of 'em now, and that's exactly what they sounded like.

 

ZUK rocks, if you look on his web site it tell how it check. WWW.gearinstall.com

 

drain the oil in the front dif if you find

- chunks of metal there your problem

- no metal means the problem is somewhere else (at least you have new gear oil up front now)

friend has the same problem that you discribed the clunking and all in 4wd with his 92 4runner and it ended up being the ring and pinion

hope this helps a little

 

THanks that should do it!