binding turning left in 4wd

mrgooofy · June 11, 2017

hi, I have a 03 chevy 1500hd 4x4. in 4wd turning left in gravel the truck stats to bind up and come to a stop. it does not due this turning right in 4wd or 2wd. put the truck in 4wd auto it turns normal I both directions. no binding, do I have a bad cv joint, or transfer case? in 4wd going straight no problem thanks for the help,,,

arcasey · June 12, 2017

Just by what you're saying my first thought is CV axle is bad. Your description of the issue is not a normal issue that I know of. All the CV axles that I've had go bad all started popping when turning sharply in either direction and eventually would feel like they are binding. The fact that you say you don't experience the issue when turning right in 4WD and 2WD is a little confusing and would lead me to think it may be 4WD related, as long as you don't feel anything when turning left in 2WD. Are you sure that the issue doesn't exist when turning left in 2WD? You may want to jack the front end up and turn the wheels sharply in both directions and spin the wheels and see if you can feel the bind.

Another school of thought is to just replace both CV axles and rule that out. They aren't too expensive. You should be able to find decent ones for around $150-$200 for the pair but I would jack it up first and see what you find.

mrgooofy · June 13, 2017

I was in gravel when I tried this, did a right and left hand turn in 2wd no binding,no noise, same spot turn right and left in 4wd hi,, turns great to the right, turn to the left,front end binds up and brings the truck to a stop.popping noice when I give it more gas and , same spot tried a right and left in 4wd auto, no problem, no noise,,

arcasey · June 13, 2017

Okay well it's starting to sound more and more like its a 4WD issue and not CV axles but it is still puzzling that you only the experience the issue in one direction. The reason you probably didn't hear anything in 4WD auto is that the transfer case most likely never engaged and sent power to the front end. I'd still like to know what you find when you jack the front end completely up and turn the wheels to the left and right at full lock and spin the tires. Also, can you describe what area of the truck the noises you are hearing are coming from?

I will say this, I had a transfer case/transmission issue on my old 96 that was causing some binding and bucking that I initially thought was due to CV axles and the problems would always be worse when in 4WD. The only way I isolated that it was transfer case and transmission was I put the truck in 4WD so that the front differential was engaged and pulled both driveshafts and spun the differentials by hand to make sure there was no binding from the differentials to the wheels. The next day after i did this I lost my transmission under moderate acceleration so I guess I verified my suspicion. I don't know if it will hurt anything so unless your willing to take the gamble I wouldn't do this until it can be verified that it will not damage anything, but you could put the truck in 4WD and then drop the front driveshaft and do some quick tests that way to see if the problem still exists. The reason I say this shouldn't be a problem is that the driveshaft should attach to a fixed yoke on both the differential and transfer case so there should be no loss of fluid from either and in theory spinning with no load shouldn't hurt anything. Again, I wouldn't do this unless your willing to take the risk or someone else that knows a little more about your particular model can verify that it would be okay to do this. By doing this it should isolate the problem to be 4WD related as long as you don't experience the issue again.