I had 3.5" lift springs on the front of my 96 XJ...this past weekend I added 1-3/4" spacers to the front so it would sit level w/ the rear. While I was doing this I went ahead and home brewed a TC drop kit that's between 1" & 1-1/4" drop. Now when I drive I have a whining/grinding noise that's coming from my front axle/differential. It sounds like a 747 is flying over me when I get up around 60mph, when i'm driving slow it seems to grind slower as far as the noise or "pulse" of it goes. It's almost like when you used to put baseball cards in your spokes on a bicycle as a kid...just a lot more annoying. I'm assuming it's a bad angle in the front end from the fabrications that I made. Any help w/ this would be greatly appreciated. I also installed adjustable lower control arms to get my pinion angle straightened back out from the lift...it's at about 5.5 degrees, which is close to what it would be at 5" lift i've read. Let me know your 2 cents!
Thanks guys.

 

I was getting the same "baseball card" noise aswell when I did my lift but it and sounded like it might have been comeing from the rear, I just greased and sprayed my driveshafts, and everything, idk if thats what it was or if it was just rust and dirt scraping from the different angle but it stop.

 

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Yea this is coming from the front and its not something that's just random, it's like gears wearing against eachother it sounds like...I had 3.73 rear end gears put in my mustang a few years back and they made the same whining but without the grinding...it's almost like a fast thumping...hard to explain...I'm HOPING it's a bad angle that can be an easy fix though. Thanks for the input, I'll double check all the connections.

 

Check the inside of the double cardan ujoint collar on your front driveshaft,at an extreme angles they will touch each other and make a knock/rubbing freakin heliopter sound.It will usually leave clean metal if there rubbing and it will also do this if the cv knuckle in your driveshaft is worn out.