My truck has just started to make a popping sound whenever I am taking off in reverse or drive. I can feel the pop under my feet. My truck is a 99 5.4 orp with 60,000 miles. Could it be a universal joint or what? I am about to put the truck up for sale and I do not want anything to be wrong with when I sale it.

 

Crawl underneath and check it out. Grab the drivesahft with your hand and rotate it back and forth, it will move a bit due to play in the rear end and tranny but you want to look at the joints themselves and see if there is any movement. What you describe though sounds like the slip yoke at the end of the driveshaft. They tend to make a clunking noise when you first take off if they haven't been lubed in a while. Some good grease in the slip yoke should fix it. Either way, u-joints, or slip yoke, they are both a cheap and easy to fix.

-Jon

 

I have the same noise when taking off from a stop. Ok what end of the driveshaft is the slip yoke on? How do you grease it? What exactly does the slip yoke do? Thanks

 

The slip yoke slides in and out of your transmission tailhousing/tailshaft. It slides on splines and a bushing. It also has a portion that rides on a seal in the rear of the tailhousing. So, it's in front of the forward U-joint. You have to "mark" and remove your driveshaft carefully to prevent seal damage, then lubricate the splines inside the yoke.

 

U-joints generally start with a rhythmic squeaking. Then it starts to rumble and grind just before it falls apart.

I agree with the others, it sounds more like a slip yoke problem.

 

My truck goes in to the Ford shop this Monday and I hope that it will not be in there long. I talked to the mechanic and he said that he has never put u-joints in a Ford truck any newer than a 97. The popping is consistent now, perhaps it could be coming from the transfer case. My 99 Ranger 4*4 started popping and grinding one time and the left front hub kept trying to lock in by itself. That was an expensive project to fix. Anyway, my truck pops and I can I can feel it towards the front of my feet while driving. Also, the truck has developed a rattling sound from the front end when I hit little bumps and such. Any insight would help me a lot.