Front Drive Shaft Noise! help?!

This is a pick up from the thread, "Rear Dif Noise! Help?!"

Here it is...  The sounds/noises, bla, bla, bla can be read at the beginning of the above mentioned thread. But it wasn't the wheel-joint nor the carrier bearings.

I believe it to be from a certain instance due to a certain mod.  See what you all think before my thoughts spoil yours.

Tools of Info... The noise sounds similar to the beginnings of a u-joint going but without the vibration. The noise seems to be coming from underneath me when driving.

Any thoughts???  

"The noise seems to be coming from underneath me when driving."

What did you have for lunch?

I'm sorry, that's just the first thing that popped into my head.  

Same noise in either two or four wheel drive?

Take the front drive shaft off. Go for a test drive.

This would isolate the drive shaft u-joints and the
chain in the xfer case. The chain could be making noise and that will stop running without a drive line.  

That's what I was figuring.  You kow how it goes at times. you just wish for a simple splution that you just haven't thought of.  Some may call it, "the easy way out".  If the 'easyway out' is what works, then there's nothing wrong taking that avenue.

I'll just monitor it over the weekend and try to find time yank it.  (there's another one for you, ftgiles, as a play-on-words.)  Gotta hand it to you, that was good with the noise crack you made.  I didn't even pick it up.  Good!  Thanks for the laugh.

BTW...The T-case is the 231.  Is the pinion/yoke bolted in like on the dif side? Or, is it a slip in, like the original set-up on the rear output shaft on the t-case? I'm assuming I won't have to worry about loss of flluids?!  With my RE skid plate, I t;'s hard to reach and see that point.  

The front drive shaft has a u-bolt and yoke set-up on both ends.  

Thanks for the confirmation.  It's just a *** to reacreach up there, let alone see up there beyound the skid plate.  

I'll see what I can do without dropping the plate and jacking the xmsion and t-case.

Thanks again!  

you might check the front cv shaft. i recently had to rebuild mine because the OEM cv joint is non servicable and it wore with dirt getting in the center ball and grinding away over time. mine started out as a squeak and a little vibration. i grabbed a hold of it one day to check and see if there was any play and it seemed fine. much to my surprise it fell apart the next day!!! since then i've heard it happen to other TJs too.  they just wear out and then give out with hardly any hint of trouble.  btw i got my parts from napa.  

Thanks for the words guys.  I'm putting away my efforts totally yet. But talking to a few people, I've found that my front drive shaft is a bit bigger in diamaeter than usual.  The regualar diameter will not hit the RE plate.  The contact at full left front extension is due to the diameter being about 1/2" bigger.  This contact is what originally led me to believe it was the cause of the noise.  I've since found a worn left front wheel-joint and a toasted carrier bearing.

What a buddy and I just figured today is possibly a worn engine mount.  Why, you ask?!  The fan shroud is showing slight markings of the fan coming in contact with it towards the lower portion.  With that in mind... the noise does change frequency with RPM and not with speed.  That would also explain the ease of hearing it in 2WD as aposed to 4WD. (4WD evens out the torque relayed from the drive line back to the motor, relatively to 2WD.)

Not saying this is defineitely it, but i'll follow up with you.  Once it cools, I'll be probing the engine mounts.  

Ok all, some time has passed.  

Let me catch you up to speed.

Motor mounts has been replaced.  A noise that was going on, of which I wasn't worried about is now gone.  It was just the exhaust pipe tapping a control arm.  The motor mounts fixed that and the tapping of the fan hitting the fan scroll.  The old (original)motor mounts were so shot, that the block rose 1-1/4 inches.  (Heck it now gave me more clearance underneath. It all works out in the end!!!)

The origiinal noise in question is still there.  It leads me back to my first suspision.  The t-case.

I had a shop look it over and the tech said it was the front cv-joint.  I disconnected the front drive shaft and drove it.  It didn't go away, it was worse.  The differentiation of torque on the two output shafts are greater disconnected than connected, therefore it is worse. Same as 2wd as opposed to 4wd.  But seeing that the noise got worse, my thoughts are prying to the t-case.

I'm not yet ruling out the point of the cv-joint needed some attention, it was a good catch by the tech.  I'll tinker with the cv-joint during the t-case swap.

On that note:  If any comments need to be made to this post, go to the new post... "Swapping: YJ 231 and TJ 231"

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