I had my front drive axles replaced last August and now I hear this rattle, banging sound up front. When I went under the truck I was able to move the passenger drive axle up and down but not in and out. I think that this is the culprit of the rattle noise that I am hearing. Usually when they go bad it will move in and out. Any one have any ideas as to why it only has play in the up and down motion. This is on a 95 T 4x4 SR5.

Thanks

What part of the axle are you noticing the play?

You might need to add some grease and oil to the spindles. The bronze bushings may be dry.

Erik it moves up and down where it goes into the actual pumkin

That's pretty normal, but of course its hard to say if yours is worse than normal for some reason...

I recently replaced my front axles (twice on the passenger side) and have the same noise, after replacing the axle on the passanger side. I think it might be sloppy rebuilt axles. When you grab the axle shaft and move it towards the pumpkin and then back towards the wheel hub the outer joint makes a noise. There is about a 1\4 inch of movement. When driving you can hear the rattle but only when you hit a bump or dip on the passenger side. I have plenty of grease in the hub to cv axle seal. What are the odds that I got two bad axles, I bought one on line and one from advanced auto? Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas the noise is driving me nuts.

Did you check any other components as possible culprits? Sway bar bushings and end links come to mind. What else have you inspected to decide it was the axles?

The end links for the sway bar have been replaced and the bar bushings are in good shape. The sound started right after I replaced the front cv axle (during the first test drive) thats why I replaced it (cheap online rebuild rattled when you shook it). I was sure it was the axle because of this but now that I have replaced it I'm not sure. Like I said if I grab the axle and move it horizontaly from the differential toward the hub it makes a metal to metal noise (the outer joint) is that normal? My other suspicion is it may be the input shaft going into the differential it has some play but then again it has always had some play (both in and out and up and down) What do you guys think? I dont have the original cv axles to see if they had so much play or made a noise when you moved them as descibed earlier (gave then up for the core charge) Does a good cv axle have slop like that or did I get burned with two badly rebuilt cv axles?

Went and tugged on my front axle shafts. OEM units, no noise, 250k miles.

When pulled straight out, the axle shaft will slip back and forth about 1/8", sharply clicking or clanking at each end of the motion.

When pulled radially there is no slop at the wheel end. At the differential end the CV joint can deflects a good 1/4".