I have beaten ever part of the front suspension on my 4X4 with a rubber mallet thinking that I had something loose. Finally I found that the jingle (almost a rattle, but not quite) was the passenger side front axle. I can bounce a mallet off of it and it creates a this noise. I first thought that the two plates just where the axle enters the housing were rattling together, but they look OK. Should there be that much slack in the line? It rattles like a 20 year old truck on washboards and pavement cracks.

 

No telling what it is. Could be that the 4wd is not disengaging completely. What year is it? If it's still under warranty, take it in and give the headache to the sales people!

-Flea

 

If it sounds like a couple of hardened flat washers jingling on a loosened bolt -- call me collect when you find the solution -- it's driving me nutzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

 

I have it too but mines a 2wd.

-Jon

 

Check under the lug nut cover on the front wheel (On the 4x4). I had the same thing. It sounds like a piece of chain haning on the bottom of the truck. Mine was the small stamped cover that retains the bolt on the hub. It is cotter pined in place but is loose. I used a little silicone caulk to hold it. The original looked like it had gasket sealant or something in it, just a couple dabs though.

 

Y2K

You've got the sound down exactly. I thought it was a suspension problem, loose nut on a shock or something, but I found it was the front axles. I have no solution, but 4X4 works great with no problems engaging/disengaging. If you pound on the axles with a rubber mallet, you'll see that it is source of the problem. Hope someone can help us out!!

 

Bervinator has got it !

I had it and it drove me nuts ! After much fooling around it turned out to be the front axle nut retainers. Remove the front hub cover. Take out the cotter pin and pop the retainer off (It will probably fall right off, mine did). Clean it with some alcohol and put a bead of rtv silicone around the inside of the ring, where it meets the axle nut. Re-install with a NEW cotter pin and let the silicone cure a few hours. Your jingling will be gone for good and the silicone will still allow you to easily pry the ring off in case you need to do so in the future.

Do the other axle while you're at it too since if it's not jingling already it surely will start...

 

BINGO! I've been trying to find this post for weeks! Couldn't get the right combination of words in the search frame...

I've got the EXACT jingling! Which side was it?

The rubber mallet would rattle it too that sounds like the problem.

Gonna check it out this weekend...

-Joe-

 

Mine was originally on the passenger side wheel but I 'fixed' both sides. You could really hear it when the passenger window was down and you drove through an under-pass or something like that. Sounded just like change jingling in your pocket or washers jingling on a bolt... Ford used some kind of lame adhesive, and not much of it, under the retainer. When you look under there you'll see a blotch of some lame black stuff. When the heat of braking and whatnot dried out the adhesive the retainer started jingling. Drove me crazy trying to figure it out. I finally figured it out when I replace my front rotors and pads... Hit the thing by accident and Yipeee ! Releif...

Do the silicone fix and you'll be good to go, just be sure you use new cotter pins. $0.40 worth of insurance is too cheap to pass up... Got 2 of them at thehardware store for $0.20 each and the tube of rtv black silicone was about $2.50.