09 f150 eating front shafts

[magnet]

just wondering if anybody else is having the same issue or not?
09 f150 4x4 less than 100k and my second front drive shaft is toast again. i realize that it would probably last alot longer if the pos was greasable but its like everyhing else now adays its not. i dont use 4x4 often but shaft turns all the time regardles so that wouldnt be an issue. next one after warrenty i will be building one to put in. but anyways has anybody else had this issue, dealer tells me no then wtf is causing it dealer? poor angles or something, unit is straight stock except tires nothing else changed.
not looking for brand bashing just honest opinions or relative stories.
thanks.

 

[sirkdev]

My 2008 f350 same thing at 80000 km weird vibration, replace front shaft, all good , I use 4wd very sparingly. Truck is pretty well pampered. 90% highway

Have done 2 front shafts on 2003 f250 superduty with 150000 km of all offroad km manual hubs turned in 95% of the time. This one has a 5.4 so it is not a power issue.

Certainly not the same truck but interesting none the less.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

Is it a u-joint that is failing?

First thing I would look into is if the drive shaft is phased,.. are both yokes in a straight line on the driveshaft

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[what_next]

i havent replaced the shafts, but i've blown both hubs on my 04

 

[sirkdev]

Is it a u-joint that is failing?

First thing I would look into is if the drive shaft is phased,.. are both yokes in a straight line on the driveshaft

]==========[

All mine were CV joints

 

[magnet]

it all looks good when you pull it out except the u joints are pooched.

 

[boots]

check your hubs and see if it is on auto or if they are locked... if they are locked might be your problem... i know on manual hubs being locked and not in 4x4 it will wreck the drive shaft maybe the same on auto hubs if they are locked

 

[Rockwerx]

My experience with front shafts has been about the same on trucks that do not have locking hubs. If it is spinning all the time it will wear out plain and simple. The main problem is that many (if not all) factory front shafts have no provision to service them...ie No Grease Zerks! When I replaced the stock shafts with ones you could lube the slip joint and ujoints, the front shafts would last for years...with regular grease service of course. I also added unlockable hubs to a couple trucks and then the drive shafts would last a lot longer.

 

[Rockwerx]

Maybe you can find some ujoints with grease zerks so you can service them. I know that it was quite some time before aftermarket greaseable ujoints were available for my 08 Ram...maybe by now there are some good ones for your Ford.

I would also recommend to anyone with a 4x4 to bring enough tools to be able to remove the front drive shaft if the ujoints starts to fail. I used to bring spare ujoints with the truck (front and rear shaft ujoints). Some ujoints you can change with simple tools. If you have the ujoints with your truck it can save you a lot of time if you are out of town and have to replace them. I made up repair kits for my 4x4s that included a few things that were fairly cheap to keep spares in case of a breakdown in the bush. I would bring spare fan belt, ujoints (with spare straps and bolts) easy out kit for removing broken ujoint bolts amongst many other things in my emergency kits. Sometimes I would just bring a spare front shaft with tape on the cups to prevent them from loosing their guts.

At the very least one should bring enough tools to be able to remove the front shaft no matter what brand of vehicle it is. If it starts to go out of balance the vibrations can break the transfer case and/or the transmission case. A little bit of fore thought and planning can sure save a person a lot of grief and also money.

Good luck with your truck!

 

[polarice]

id be looking into as to why your front shaft is turing all the time

 

[Rockwerx]

id be looking into as to why your front shaft is turing all the time

That is the way many 4x4 trucks are designed. They don't have hubs that unlock either manually or automatically.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

That is the way many 4x4 trucks are designed. They don't have hubs that unlock either manually or automatically.

No but on some they unlock from the transfer case as well as the front axle, not sure on the newer fords, but the older ones were vacuum controlled, and my '06 dodge was electric.

Also depends if the truck has an AWD mode, or auto 4wd.

 

[magnet]

No but on some they unlock from the transfer case as well as the front axle, not sure on the newer fords, but the older ones were vacuum controlled, and my '06 dodge was electric.

Also depends if the truck has an AWD mode, or auto 4wd.

yes mine a supposedly unlocking by vacumn, already replaced 1 hub because the vacumn dealy quit at mach chicken on the highway made one heck of anoise when it first tried to lock in one hub at 70mph.

 

[SLAYERMIKE]

id be looking into as to why your front shaft is turing all the time

his shaft is spinning all the time because the unit bearings do not have a selectable hub so they are allways "locked" and everything from the wheels to the transfer case is always spinning

now why your u-joints are failing is really wierd cause an IFS shaft only spins because the differential is stationary. have you hit the t-case or tranny cross member on any rocks or anything that would change the u-joint angles? they should be close to 3* if they are straight they will fail. lots of winter highway miles can wear out the u-joints as well. but my lifted IFS Chevy has seen a TON of winter highway miles and gets wheeled often and I've never had a front shaft issue. I'd be really interested as to what you find out! good luck!

 

[OnlyPolaris]

Have 156000 km on my 04 with no drive shaft issues. Just had to do the hubs last week for the first time because I lost vaccum.