Hello,
Yesterday my cherokee started up with a wonderful rattling grinding clunking noise, it wasn't pretty. it only happens when the engines started and when i shut it off. only for about 2 or 3 seconds. im 95% sure its coming from the transfer case. runs fine otherwise, 4x4 seems to still work. this is my first 4x4 vehicle so i thought id ask the pros. the first inside video you can hear it during start up better. the second from underneath you can hear it during shut off better. any ideas of what could be causing this?

(inside)

(underneath)

Thanks for your time!

 

I couldn't listen to the video(broken phone speaker) but I had this issue once. It did it on start up and shut down and progressively got worse to all the time.
Ended up being my exhaust tapping my crossmember. I could have sworn it was my t case but one day I saw the exhaust touching it. You should be able to fit your thumb between the crossmember and exhaust.

 

Wait until it's completely cool to do this. Ask me how I know What is the condition of your exhaust hangers? I had an old 2WD XJ that was doing the same thing and it was the exhaust.

 

Yes! One of my brackets rusted and broke just the other day, I heard it bouncing around but figured the rattle was something else. Will replacing the bracket fix the problem?

 

Seeing how that's the easiest and cheapest solution I would start there.