My 2005 F150 4X4 clunks like crazy when I am going over rough streets, it is coming from the front and I thought it was suspension related, I took the front wheels off tonight and the suspension all seems fine, BUT, wiggled the front drive shaft and it has almost a 1/4 turn of play. I am assuming this is NOT normal, but I am new to 4x4s. Would the front ujoint (are these ujoints or cv joints?) be shot? If so are they any more difficult to change than a rear ujoint?

On another note, it seems strange to me that this happens over rough terrain and isnt suspension related, do I have 2 problems and one that I just havent uncovered yet, or would it make any sense that the front driveshafts would clunk going over rough terrain?

 

Probably the lower ball joints. You'll have to lift the front put a crow bar under the tire and lift. If you hear the clank it's the ball joints. Other thing could be the sway bar bushings. I'd bet on the ball joints though.

 

okay thanks for the info, I will give that a try and see. Are there any links on here for replacing them or are they still pretty straight forward?

 

It's pretty much straight forward if your mechanically able. It wouldn't hurt to have the chilton/haynes book or alldatadiy.com account. You'll need to rent a ball joint tool from autozone to press the old ball joints out and to press the new ones in.

Sorry I don't recall a step by step guide on here but I think it's pretty easy, it just takes time to do them.