OK, Finally getting back here to wrap this one up. Between having to wait on the tax check, finding/ordering parts and my buddy and I having a free weekend at the same time, this took a bit to accomplish.
So, I ordered the new vacuum seals, o-rings and needle bearings for the hubs (just in case), new brake rotors and new Wagner Thermo-Quiet Severe Duty brake pads.
This past Saturday (03-12) I got to my buddies shop and started the tear-down. Pulled the wheels and brakes off, setting the old brake parts aside, pulled the hubs and was ready to pull the axle shaft from the housing. When I grabbed the stub shaft, on the passenger side and started to move it around to get it out, I noticed the knuckle rock back and forth a bit.... SON OF A B***H!!!!!!!!! Had my buddy verify, and sure enough found some slop in the ball joints..... Hadn't even taken the tire off the drivers side, and we walked over there and wiggled the drivers side wheel... and flop, flop, flop..... OH JOY.... well, look up and order ball joints..... so this has now just turned into a much longer day than I had planned.....
Finish pulling both sided apart and remove both axle shafts. Find that both vacuum seals are TRASHED, they actually came out in pieces....... loaded the axle shafts up and took them to "His Guy" for driveline work, to have the U-Joints replaced. Got the joints replaced with SPICER joints. The old ones were still in pretty good shape, but it was this far apart... might as well replace them...... and paying a pro to replace the joints was worth EVERY PENNY!!!! He had both joints replaced and back on the bench ready to go back to the Jeep to go to the shop in the amount of time I would have been F-ing with getting the clips out.....
Run and pick up the replacement ball joints (not the best ones, but what I could find on short notice, and much better than what I had)..... head back to finish up.
Removing the bad ball joints from the knuckles was about as much fun as you can imagine.... took at least 2 hours to remove and replace the 4 joints from the knuckles, with the proper tools...... they are just a B***H!!!!!! Put the knuckles back in, axle shafts and new vacuum seals (the reason we are here in the first place), hubs, new rotors, pads and hardware, wheels and put it back on the ground......
DRIVES LIKE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TRUCK. Almost no noise from the front (the clunk I was trying to figure out) and no "Original Unusual Noise" that I was chasing.
I still need to replace the drag link and tie rod as all the joints are starting to have a bit of play, which is more noticeable now that everything else is nice and tight..... and I have to replace the passenger side lockout. I somehow exploded the guts of the lockout, so now I just gutted that one for now to use as a "cap" on the hub. Still trying to decide if I want to spend the money on a stock replacement (the vacuum one for the ESOF, which will work properly now that I have done all this other work), or get a set of WARN/Mile Marker/ETC manual lockouts. This bad lockout also explains why I couldn't 4x4 to work when I needed it a few weeks ago....
So between the seals/u-joints and the ball joints, I have cured all the noise in the front......
Just wonder now if what I was having happen was a "mini death wobble" since the ball joints were loose, and I caught it before I had a MAJOR issue......
