Try this, reconnect that jumper you made up to keep IWEs disengaged. Start engine to pull a vacuum and let run a minute or so, that will pull a vacuum on the vacuum reservoir, that box looking thingy the solenoid clips to. Then shut it off, and climb underneath, and try moving the halfshaft up/down/all around, and try rotating by hand, to see if noise is replicated. Pay attention to the boots looking to see if any are torn or have holes, and if grease is spread where grease shouldn't be.

 

I will let you know that a co-worker just had both his IWEs and hubs replaced because of this exact noise and situation. They found his IWE and hub splines were so worn from loss of vacuum that they literally were slipping and jumping the splines. They replaced both hubs, IWEs and installed they blue check valve. Everything is normal now.

P.S.- He actually had to find a city street with an incline to test drive the truck with the tech to make them fix it. They kept telling him "normal" as well.

 

That's still a possibility.

 

Well - took off the heat shield to get a better view of the half shaft, and think I located the issue. Check out these pics - looks like the bolt heads are shearing on the Hellwig sway bar that I recently had installed.

 

Yeah, I bet that makes a racket.

 

Great, now ya know! I saw the first two photos before I read your reply, my dog looked at me when I said "WTF?" When you said swaybar earlier, I was thinking the rear.

 

johnday, thanks for taking the time to help me. Your build thread was one of the first that I subscribed to when I got this truck back in January.

Also thank you to everyone else that chimed in, your comments on other things that it could have been educational for me, and help me know my truck better.

I will update once I get back to 4 Wheel Parts and have them adjust the sway bar mounting.

Have a great Sunday all!

 

Glad you figured it out. They should wear in the clear eventually.

 

Thank you, and you're very welcome, any time. Glad to see it was something that isn't a big deal.
Now you can go the rest of the day smiling!! Have a good one yourself.

 

Follow up - after the shop conferred with Hellwig, it was determined that the front sway bar was not installed correctly. Service manager came out and told me they screwed up, and had the integrity to apologize.

4x4 now operates quietly like I thought it should!