Why do the weird unlogical problems always happen to me? Here's the dilema. In the front axle shaft on my 85 is making a metal on metal binding noise. I thought for sure the birfeild busted. However there was no loud noises and there was no reason for it to break. I was just cruising down the beach. I Took it apart and that wasn't it. The birfeild was binding in the knuckle when spinning but there was nothing wrong with the birfeild. I took the shaft out and the diff would spin perfectly with no binding or no noises. I then put a spare shaft and birfeild in. It worked flawlessly. Then I put the original shaft back in and it worked fine also. So I put the axle back together with the origianl nd it worked fine for about the first 10 miles I drove it in 4wheel drive, but now its back to making the same noise. Has anyone every heard of something like this happening. I'm stumped...any info would be greatly appreciated. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I had some odd clicking, such as might be found with an impending birf blowup - turned out to be a worn MarTack allowing the axle to slip slightly out of position. Had some slight seal splooging happening too, for the same reason. Don't know if you are using MarTacks, but it does sound like an out of position axle. Or worn brass bushings in the spindle.

I'm no expert but I was gonna say that too..
Was there any score marks on the inside of the housing?

Have you checked your propshaft? Try running it with the manual hubs in lock position, the tranny in 2WD and the front prop removed.
If the noise is still there I also would recommend checking the brass bushings.

I'm running mar-tacks and they are ok.It only the driver side shaft where the noise is coming from so that makes me think that it has nothing to do with the 3rd member which is practically new. The bushing does have a little slop in it but I don't know that its enough to cause a problem. The birfeild was binding on the outer part of the knuckle, almost like it wasn't splined in quite far enough. I haven't driven it very far like this because I don't what to mess something up even worse. To me it seems like the shaft may be bent or possibly the housing but nothing happened to warrent anything bending. I just don't understand why it just all of a sudden started to happen and after I took it apart and put it back together it worked fine for a short period of time.

could it be rocks stuck in your rotor's dust shield?

Is your Martack in the right place? If the axle is out too far the Birf could be rubbing on the spindle bushing. Maybe the bushing is spinning inside the spindle? I had a new bushing weld itself to a Birf. It was well greased and had very few miles on it. It didn't make any noise that I can remember though.

Knuckle bearings worn out will cause mis-alignment.

Its not rock or anything related to the rotors/brakes b/c the noise isn't prevelant when the hubs aren't locked. It not the steering bearings either b/c I rebuilt the axle in the spring. The only thing I could see it being is the brash bushing or the martacks. But the martacks have worked fine up until now...and when the go bad the axle would spline in further not out. I think i'm just going to ride around with the hubs locked for awhile to so if I can find some wear mark from whatever is rubbing. It seems to be most prevelant when decelerating. Who knows I always have the unsolvable problems.

Dude. You have not done the basics. You are generalizing that it couldn't be this, couldn't be that, because you recently did this and that. There is definitely something wrong, there is definitely something misaligned or improperly clearanced, and it will definitely break if left unattended. You gotta go back in there and assume nothing.

This is advice from someone who, in his lettered career, disassembled a motorcycle ignition only to find it was out of gas. Assume nothing... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif" alt="" />