Since we seem to be on the subjects of weird noises....

I have a '04 1500 (4x4) that when I go to take off and the tire spins a little (hey, it's snowy), there's a clunk from the rear end when the tire grabs again. Not sure if it's normal or not.

Also, when I had my '94 1500, in 4x4 it'd bind when I tired to take a sharp corner (when in 4H). I figured it'd go away in my '04, but the biding is still there. Is this just normal of 4x4's?

By binding, I mean the wheel becomes harder to turn and the vehicle seems to need a lot more power to complete the turn.

Thanks all

 

Its normal. The wheels are fighting each other. If you have "Auto4" or "AutoTrac" 4 wheel drive then I'd use that. It will release the front drive wheels and then grab again then let go then grab again ..... and so on allowing you to turn without too much binding. In 4H, don't force it to turn if you don't have to. I did this by accident once and I heard a loud BANG from the front end on my 91'. Im assuming the diff skipped a tooth. It sounded reeeeal bad but it worked ok afterwards. Too much traction while turning in 4wd is hard on the driveline.

 

I could be off my trail here so correct me if Im wrong but I was told that the "binding" is the wheels wanting to spin the same speedand because you are turning the outside wheel needs to rotate much more than the inside wheel (the front will do this more than the rear because you are turing on the front) that also explains why you only notice it in 4WD. So this binding will never go away and is totally normal. This isnt as bad on smow because it allows the outside tire toslip a little. As far as your "clunk" goes that is just your rear wheels catching or grabing the pavement after spinning. You want to be careful with spining your wheels on the snow then having them grab the pavement like that because it can hurt the rear end somehting fierce. I knowour trucks are a lot tougher but I have a 99 Saturn SC2 (35mpg oh yeah!) that if you do thisit will break the Dif pin and blow a whole right through the side of the tranny. I have seen it happen, not a good feeling. So I try to be careful with that on my other vehicles as well.

Hope this helps

 

yeah the same thing happens to me with the rear diff... its just the diffs locking. good ol limited slip!!!!
i know it doesnt sound good but if you just try to minimize the amount of gas your applying when starting off in the snow itseems to catch a little smoother.
also another thing to do is shift into 4 H when you come up to a stop light and when you get on the highway shift back down to 2H, (when your under a safe speed like 40 or so!!!)
i might be wrong here but im almost 100 percent sure thats the cause!!

 

Well with tire spin there is little resistance on the driveline. Then you catch and your instantly putting twice the pressure on the driveline than normal all at once. So the driveline is taking up the slack (play) all in one second. Hence the clunk. Like if you were running and then plowed into a glass door, say when you where drunk. Not that it has ever happened to me before, lol. Ker-thud!

 

Yeah, I'm really not trying to hurt my baby. I don't spin it that hard, but coming off off a snowy driveway and taking off on dry pavement usually produces the noise

The auto 4WD is supposed to grab and release often like that? That was going to be my next question...

I'm glad to hear it's normal. Thanks all.

 

yeah man, i have that same clunking from my rear dif as well. it sucks, i hate that noise, it sounds like the rear end is messed up, but thats just what i figure it was normal. i was actually gonna ask about that too but ya beat me to it.

 

yeah that clunk is thanks to that stupid gov-lock limited slip that gm puts in the rear. mine finally took a crap and broke a tooth off the spider gear..its dumb how they work, when one wheel starts to slip a set of weights locks the other wheel in and makes that clunk noise..beware it will break...i bought a detroit tru-trac diff..none better

 

In Auto 4wd (not 4x4) and when you are tunring yes. Try it. Take a sharp turn in Auto and you can feel it grab and release a few times.