hey daveman,

tried something tonight i haven't tried before. put my foot on the brakes while sitting still and then gave her some gas (powerbrakin' if you will). released the gas but not the brakes and within a second or so of releasing the gas felt a couple successive shudders in the driveline somewhere!! i did this a couple different times. the shudder is exactly the same feeling i get when i'm not powerbrakin. so, even though i still have no idea what is causing the thunk...at least i think i can reliably display the behaviour to the service dept the next time i take it in...wish me luck!

troy

 

Troy,

Good luck and keep us posted. I've had no time to try any of my ideas either.

~DM~

 

daveman, et al...

well, i took the truck in to the dealership today and had the service dept manager ride along with me. he agreed there definitely is something not quite right. i'm taking the truck in on friday and hopefully they'll be able to figure out what the deal is. he said he is almost certain it is something in the driveline but doesn't think it's the limited slip since my truck performs the clunk while going straight. he also doesn't think it's the tranny which i didn't think was the culprit either. anyhoo, he said he is sticking his top mechanic on it and they plan to check all the tsbs as well as talk to a regional rep/engineer in minneapolis. he said they may even try taking a driveshaft/yoke...etc off a brand new s-crew and putting the parts on my truck to see if that works! all in all i feel that they are gonna put their best effort forward. so here's hoping...!

also, because of differing opinions about slip yoke lubrication...i asked the service manager about this particular item again. he told me that the yoke does not receive lubrication from the transmission. he said that ford puts teflon grease on the yoke/splines at the factory and that occasionally they (service dept) have to perform the same procedure when it's needed...

so that's the latest...wish me luck!

troy

 

i know you are all dying to know how i came out...right??

anyhoo, here is the latest. picked up the truck this afternoon. service manager told me they took the yoke/driveshaft off a brand new s-crew and put it on mine. (wonder what they did with the old one...prolly put it on the other truck!)

anyway, for the time being it appears to have fixed my problem.
i'll cross my fingers and hope this is the last trip back for awhile. even though the service department here is pretty decent, i still hate going in there. can't really explain it other than i get a little perturbed with some of the mechanics since they don't seem to wanna answer questions. the service manager on the other hand is decent.

as a last note, the SM told me that they haven't had many problems like this on the f150s. but i guess the rangers were pretty bad until ford redesigned the driveshaft/yoke around a year or so ago...

well, that's it...hope those of you who have thunkers are able to get the problem fixed...!

 

Thanks for the heads up there Troy. When I get back home, I'm going to try to get things figured out with my truck. There are a few little issues I need to get resolved and the one big one--the thunk.

For now, I sit in a hotel room in Missoula, Montana twiddling my thumbs, drinking the local microbrews. Ahh... Big Sky Country.

RP

 

hey rock,

let me know how you like missoula...i'm planning to visit there this summer or fall. it might be a permanent location for me if i decided to transfer with my job.

anyhoo, just keep in mind that in montana the men are men and the sheep are nervous!!