Check for play in your control arm bushings, steering components and ball joints.

 

Will do.

 

well its rainy out today so i can't do much, but i managed to get under there and my left front u joint does have some play in it. so i'm going to change that within the next couple of days and see if my noise continues.

 

Wow, i wasnt expecting that! i was leaning toward track bar cause i had a similar problem and that was my solution!
do you know what caused the chain to become so loose in there?

 

Yes kinda. I bought one off someone on here but it was out of an 88 I think. It was an AMC model and mine was the jeep model, so it wasn't the exact same. The speedo was different and so was the electrical connector. So I took the chain, front output shaft and gears, and the oil pickup and rebuilt mine. I also changed out the tail housing because I broke ine pulling the seal out. I need to split it again though, it's peeking around the center seal. It should just be rtv'd together right. Its a NP231. Also my 4wd lights don't come on anymore, I don't need them, but would still like to fix them. Think it may be the shaft that the fork thing slides on, maybe it's not pushing on that button right. But at the same time I'm not sure if that's the issue because it still goes into all gears fine.

 

Track bar probably.. the bushing in the track bars is known to go to hell after a while. I've had this happen in two of my four jeeps. good luck!