Hey all, I'd appreciate your suggestions once again...
I was wheeling recently and several times I heard what I can only describe as a metal splintering sound. I think it happened 3 times over the course of the trail (~4 miles maybe) and always happened in 4-Low, though I don't know if that is significant since the terrain and altitude demanded I be in 4-Low almost the entire time. Seems to be coming from the front. So far I've pulled my front axle shafts and the teeth all check good, I've checked all the bushings on my sway bar and there are no rocks embedded in them, and I drained my t-case fluid and found no sprocket teeth (though lots of glitter in the oil, nothing nearly as large as a grain of sand). Then I noticed there was a huge magnet embedded in the t-case housing, might be why I failed to pull any metal out with a magnetic screw driver. WIth that said, I peered inside and from what I could see, there were no metal chips on the internal filter screen.

What do I check next? Lower control arm bushings, I suppose?

Thanks again guys. Cheers.

 

I'm not really a "wheeler", at least not on purpose! Snap, crackle pop noise from the front at high torque in 4Wd...There are a bunch of U-joints involved there that are known to make noise....If it's a 242 T-Case with the full time option, a guy might run it for a while then feel for heat. Any bad bearing will heat up eventually!

 

Hmm, U-joints, how did I forget those? I'll check them out tomorrow afternoon, thanks for stating the obvious! Sometimes I forget to check the simple things first.