I have pulled both of my front axles out of my 2000 XJ because I was certain that the clicking noise I have was coming from bad axle joints. After inspecting them I am not as certain. They move freely but there doesn't appear to be any excess play in them. What else could be making this noise?

 

Hubs, ball joints, any worn bushing... Get down there and twist and pull on anything and everything.

 

The clicking is likely the front axle shafts. Like cv joint on a front wheel drive car. They Click when they are going out.

 

Cowboy, that's what I thought when I pulled them but like I mentioned the u-joints don't appear to be excessively worn. The only other wear concern for the axle shaft would be the splines, right? But would worn splines cause a clicking noise?

 

If you have the axle shafts in your hands I would suggest replacing the u-joints, verus just reinstalling them and having it to do over. Unless you just replaced them 3,000 miles ago, consider them "worn out".

 

Thanks Cowboy and Turbo for nudging me to the light. I am going to replace the u-joints before I put it all back together. One of the reasons that I doubted them being worn out is I thought the PO had replaced them shortly before I bought it from him. After looking throught all of the receipts I found that he only had an estimate for replacing the u-joints but never had the work done. Now all I gotta do is find some spicers and git-r-dun.

 

Trooper, when you say 'clicking sound' do you mean a clunking sound? Is it a sound as well as something you feel when you turn the wheels? If so, I have that too. I just replaced ball joints and u-joints.
Next, I plan to have someone turn my steering wheel back and forth while I give the steering a thorough inspection.

 

Any update on this?

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