You were right, but mine doesn't spin I was wrong on that too so hubs all good. Finishing up u joints tomorrow, I have the old joints off but I see plenty grease and no broken needles.. guess its looking like its not the joints but ill find out. Sucks.

 

man i tell you what this is really tricky. i dont see anything else that could have went. you have done everything right and you have replaced/checked almost everything 4wd related. let me ask this when you hear the pop noise does the 4wd stay engaged or does it pop out or anything like that? btw does it make the poping noise in 4wd low?

 

oh and that good to hear that all is good with the hubs disengageing.

 

Blackedout07 please keep us updated on this issue.
I just changed my front left CV axle today because of the same problem.
Mines an 04 with 112k and last winter it started popping in 4wd only, i thought for sure it was the axle, cause it seems to pop most when turning right,left, and turning in reverse etc.
I checked the teeth/splines on the axle,actuator,hub and they all look brand new, and full of grease.
I put a vacuum gauge to the vacuum hose going to the iwe and its holding steady at 20psi, does anybody know what psi should read????
I the only problem i found with the IWE was one of the bolts that hold it on was already stripped,was any of yours stripped?
The beginning of spring i replaced the fluid in the front diff,it had some water mixed in there, I'm assuming from the snow cause the vent tube was pulled out, so i put fresh fluid in and checked all the gears and mine seemed fine, no binding or anything.
So i can only come to the conclusion that the IWE has to be at fault, cause i don't see a wheel bearing making a popping noise.
But i could be wrong, and if i find out the problem I'll report back.
.

 

Try replacing your u joint nearest the front axle. Id put the napa Puj270 greasable u joint in. If that's not the fix its your passenger cv axle, ya I know the noise isn't coming from there. Guess what my noise was not coming from the passenger side but a new cv halfshaft on the passenger side fixed my problem. I'll post back later when um at a computer and not on my phone so I can explain everything.

 

Really! the passenger side was the cause on yours?
I'll have to look into the u-joint then the CV axle.
I'm pretty sure my IWE isn't the cause, its got plenty of vacuum and it holds vacuum fine, and all the teeth look to be in great shape.
Whats the u- joints cost for the front?

 

I think your right about the pass side, i had my nephew walk next to the truck, and he said the sound was coming from the pass side, so I'll try that next.

 

I never heard the noise from the passenger side while even standing with my head in the wheel well. I NEVER recommend to do this it is dangerous and stupid but I crawled under the front of the truck and held on as someone drove the truck in reverse with the wheel turned, I will still say i was positive the noise came from the front diff area since my head was even right by it. My brother did this also and said he heard it come from the front diff area too. Drivetrain noises just have a way of traveling that makes the culprit difficult to pin point. The way I verified it was my passenger side cv axle was by switching the new axle I put on the driver side over to the passenger side, then I could clearly only hear a noise from the driver side cv axle and no longer heard the noise we thought was coming from the diff. By this time I had replaced u joints ,$21 btw since you asked earlier, checked both hub gears, actuator gears, cv shaft gears, and pulled the front diff cover for the second time. Last thing was the other cv axle, and what do you know fixed it. I was happy but cursing up a storm after all the troubles I went through to discover a bad cv axle! Lol

 

im glad u fixed it man cause this was tricky to pin point like u said but that is typical those cv shafts pop real bad when they go bad.

 

Ya and that's something I know and was the first thing I checked. Full story from beginning to end, my front driver cv axle started popping so I rarely used 4wd until I got it fixed, during this time the passenger side cv axle went out so when I put the new driver side cv axle on and the popping didn't stop I thought that didn't fix the problem and it wasn't a cv axle issue like I had originally thought. Me and a few other people all determined after listening that the noise was way louder on the driver side than the passenger side. Like I said the way to solve this problem was to switch the new cv axle to the other side, then you can tell if that older cv axle really is bad or not.

But I can now change a cv axle out in about 35 minutes start to finish! Haha

 

glad to hear it. atleast you fixed it and didnt give up.

 

That's my next step, when ever i get a day off, I'm going to look into the passenger side.
I know it has to be a CV axle only because it pops the most on turns.
I just don't see a u joint being selective like that.
Blackout07 thanks again for the helpful hints.

 

Ya the u joint was just a cheaper $20 possible fix so I did it, wasn't it anyway. Let me know what happens with it, good luck.

 

Well replaced the right axle Sunday, and it still is making the clank/pop/click noise when turning.
One thing i did find out was, under heavy throttle going straight, it makes the noise to, so i bought 2 new u joint for the front drive shaft, hopefully it does the trick.

 

Well replaced the front drive shaft u- joints and it still makes the noise, this it starting to test my patience.