Hello first time posting to the forum. I've got a stock 1997 Cherokee (XJ) 2WD SE. Recently I noticed a small chirping sound that I would always hear during the last leg of my drive home as I would be going about 25-35 mph through my neighborhood with the window rolled down. Well the sound upgraded to a clacking sound coming from my front driver side wheel area. After some research I concluded it was the wheel hub assembly/bearing. So, I replaced it but the clacking sound is still there. Since it's a 2wd Jeep it doesn't have front axle U-Joints, aslo I replaced the rotors, calipers, and brake pads about 6 months ago. The only thing I can think of is that it might be that the knuckle and has been worn down from the brake pads/caliper and has some play. But, every time I inspect it seems fine. Thoughts?

 

Possibly the brake rotor dust shield is banging against the rotor. Also look for any trim pieces that might be flapping in the breeze. If you don't find anything then I'd pull the tires off the front, switch them and see if the sound moves with the tire or not.

I'm assuming the sound varies directly in correspondence to the road speed sort of thing. Maybe jack the wheel up and spin the tire by hand and see if you can hear anything.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. I removed and did not reinstall the dust shield after replacing the hub assembly, also the fender flares were taken off, painted, and reinstalled with new hardware just a few weeks ago so they are sitting snugly against the body. So, today I pulled both front tires as you said and swapped them and just because I had both tires off I decided to pull off both sets of brake pads and compare both seemed fine. After putting it all back together the test drive checked out, NO Clicking or Clanking. I will update in a few days if the problem comes back. Any idea why the switch might have fixed it?

 

Sounds are particularly hard to diagnose from across the interwebs - even when folks take videos and the such, it's difficult. Then folks have differing descriptions of the sound.

So without hearing the sound and being there to see the before and after of the pad installation, I'd guess that it's one of:
Sticking caliper/ruts in the knuckle causing the pad to not fully "push off" the rotor - when you re-installed the pads you may have freed it up.
Something stuck in the tire treads that either came out or doesn't make the sound when the tire spins in the opposite direction.
Something was loose and you tightened it up correctly during the process.

 

I can't be 100% sure what it was but, like I said I'll update the post again in a few days if all remains normal. Thank you!