Broken front driveshaft/Serv4WD

ANDY_TC

MEMBER
2012 RAM 1500
5.7L
V8
4WD
AUTOMATIC
104,000 MILES

Back in 2018 the front driveshaft on my truck broke in two while driving on freeway. Selector was in 2WD at the time. Had to remove shaft on side of the road. Been without 4x4 ever since. Anyone ever seen this happen before? Now I'm wanting to have shaft rebuilt but not sure what caused this failure. Currently no lights at electronic selector knob or selector status on instrument cluster. Erased Serv4WD light by hooking positive and negative battery terminals together. No other codes. Fuses all good suspect short in wiring. Any help much appreciated.

3 Replies

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

It could be a short in the wiring but we need to find out what the current state is of the system by hooking up the front drive shaft and seeing if the transfer case has any damage.

If driving down the highway the front shaft actually broke in 2 then I would think there is some other damage to the front pinion, or the output of the transfer case.

So unfortunately we need to get the vehicle put back together and find out what it is doing.

Below is the process on how to install it so let's do this and see what we are dealing with in addition to the possible engagement and we can go from there. Thanks

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Wednesday, February 17th, 2021 AT 6:01 PM

ANDY_TC

MEMBER
2 POSTS

Thanks KASEKENNY1. Having shaft rebuilt now. Will try to test electronics in the mean time. Any schematics/procedure available? Dana 44 case

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Saturday, February 20th, 2021 AT 7:39 AM

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

The only thing we can really do at this point is test the control module and if the shift motor is moving/engaging.

If it is then it is all working like it should but we won't know for sure until we see how it operates when the drive shaft is in.

Below are the wiring diagrams for your review.

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