Aloha from Hawaii fellaz,
First off thanks for the bank of 2and gen knowledge you guys have here and hopefully can add to it with this thread. 97 jimmy 4dr 4x4 auto 31s little lift on suspension and body 3.42s with the posi trac pack. Have been doing research on here and the other site for at least a week trying to diagnose this noise and vibration from the front drivers side. All searches have either ended without answers or were different symptoms than mine. So it started as a intermittent rotational clicking only when going forward and at slow speeds going straight. The weird part is its not on every rotation of the cv. Its a distinct clicking. Like 4 clicks in a row and silent for a couple rotations then again. So I checked the front diff and it was low. Added some gear oil. It has progressed over the week into a vibration at higher speeds with the same clicking. Checked 4wd vacuum and such and all seems good. Its obviously on the drivers side. So i dont think its the gear collar coupler dealski. I put it in neutral in the driveway and roll it by pushing and pulling the tire and can hear the slow click click click silent click click.......CV boots are clean. Definate signs of flying fluid on the drivers side undercarriage and its not grease. There is quite a bit of play in the half shaft going into the diff. So I started thinking it was the cv and moved to the hub bearing now I am thinking axle seal and bearings. I am mechanically inclined and am planning on doing everything myself. So questions. Do you guys think this diagnoses sounds correct? This is my daily driver and work truck. So anything I do needs to be done and able to drive within the day. Dont have a torque wrench or air tools pullers will be picking them up though.... So I am debating just sawzalling the front cv and popping the clip leaving the dealski in the doodad so my wheel dosent fall off for now. Is there any possible way to pull the whole shaft without cutting or dropping the a arm and pulling the hub nut? If I do decide to sawzall it do I have to do both Im thinking not because the passenger side is not engaged in two wheel so should not spin the diff right? Sorry for the long post but want to include as much info as possible. Any help is greatly appreciated. Will make a video of the noise and slop in the half shaft tomorrow. catjimmy 005.jpg

 

K so took a short video of the culprit. Never had it make the moaning sound while rolling it in neutral. Im guessing thats where the vibration is coming from. Grease on cv is from inspecting the upper joint. It was clean before I pulled the boot and has no cracks in it. What you guys think? Still thinking about cutting out the shaft to stop the symptoms and help me diagnose further. Thanks in advance.
CV, Hub Bearing, Half shaft or axle bearing/seal 97 jimmy - YouTube

 

Try jacking up just that tire and roll the tire and see if you can track the noise down with that. While it up in the air, grab the tire -top and bottom- and wiggle it to see if there is any play in your hub. Also grab it front and rear and jiggle it that way to see if there is any play. I wouldn't go so far as to cut the cv shaft in half to remove it. I am not a Jimmy owner, I have a full size, so I don't know if you are able to remove the cv shaft with the hub in place but it is possible on mine. I would venture a guess to say it is on yours also. Remove the inner bolts first (to the front axle side) and compress the cv axle and then try to move it off of the axle joint, If you can get that separated then just remove the axle bolt on the hub side and tap it out. May have to remove the lower shock bolt and move the shock to get room or the sway bar link but those are easily done. Hope this helps some.
Mahalo.....Have a great day!

 

Got the front wheels off the ground. Cant make it make the moaning noise with the wheels up. Get the clicking though and sounds like its the hub. Theres quite a bit of play top and bottom measured against the other side. Also there was a huge amount of play side to side as well. You could see the tie rod moving in the socket. The joint is good but the bolt was all the way loose lucky for the cotter pin! also the steering pit man arm on the passenger side was wobbling all around. the bolts holding it to the frame are loose and looks like its been rotating and wiggling inside those holes. are these suppose to be loose? After I tightened them you can see bare metal where they are suppose to be. Is this going to screw up my steering geometry? Are those bolts suppose to be loose to allow play? Also steering pitman arm on the steering box nut was also hand tight and hanging on by the cotter pin opposite side from the box. There is no rubber between the pitman and cross link? is this right? glad I got it off the ground and found this stuff be for things went way wrong.

 

All those bolts should be tight, suprised your vibrations weren't worse. Check online and find what the torrque specs are or, if the bolts have damage to the threads, replace all those bolts. I would go through the entire front end and recheck all the bolts, double check the steering box to frame bolts too and look around for cracks on the frame. Sometimes the rubber piece on the pitman will wear and fall out, if you can see an open space between that joint I would recommend getting a new one, should be able to get it from a parts store. When you checked the hub, were you able to guesstimate where the movement was? If all those other components were loose the bolts holding the hub might be loose as well.....no bueno. Yes, you are very lucky you found that stuff, losing steering would be VERY bad indeed.
Have a good day!

 

Hey thanks for the replys Cheapazz. Hub nuts are tight but still got big movement. Ya so got a new cv and hub on order. Small island 2 parts stores and both are napa. Brillant! I like napa though. Pretty sure thats where the clicking is coming from and im doing the cv just because if im pulling all that im going to do the cv. If its still good hey I got a spare. They have no core on cv or hubs over here which sucks but nice for the trail parts bin but hard on the wallet. Ya the Idler arm is the one that really scared me. It had a full 3/4 inch play on the mounting bracket. It looks brand spankin new. So the po must have forgotten to tighten it. Going to pull it off and check how ovaled the frame is. Thinking about making a thick steel bracket that will span the width of the holes yet be small enough to fish into the frame. Or should this have a camber to it for alignment adjustments? I dont think it will matter either way. Scared the bolts are going to pull through the frame. Got the exhaust donut gasket to fix my exhaust leak too. Got the truck for cheap because it caught fire from what I was told was a cat gasket catching leaked oil on fire. After researching I believe it was the donut and it caught the plastic casing on the firewall. It burned up all the vac lines so posi lock is going in. I have them plugged for now. What do the posi lock guys do with the vac switch after? Leave it with plugged vac lines or put a plug where it used to go?

 

Dunno about the vacuum lines, I have a fullsize so mine is electric. The idler arm just mounts to the frame, all the alignment adjustments are done using the bolts with eccentric washers on the upper control arms. The idler arm and pitman arm will have a slight up and down movement when the front wheels are off the ground, there is a specified test for it that includes hanging a weight from the centerlink blah blah blah....if there is too much play you can tell but they will move slightly.

You are welcome if I was able to help you in any way.
Have fun wrenchin and yeah....extra parts are gooood! LOL
Have a great day!
Can't wait to go back to Oahu.....LOVE THE NORTH SHORE!!!! so quiet and not ruined by tourists yet. I did say yet.....

 

Ill probably just cap the loose ends coming from the vac switch since nobody else like chime in. So looks like the home made bracket should be ok. Like I said it has ovaled out the holes through the frame so it needs to be done just for safety sake.

Ya I live Molokai so the north shore is like a tourist trap to me. On Molokai we ruin tourists....Na just dont offer the emintities you can get on the other islands.....Like traffic lights, fast food and high rise hotels we prefer trees, rocks and sand on our beaches rather then million dollar high rises.
Get good hunting and fishing over here though. We have i think 5 species of game birds, (wild turkey, california valley quail, Franklin pheasants, ring neck pheasants and dove) wild pigs, goats, black buck and axis deer too. Its a sportsmans paradise. Gas and groceries are the catch. 6dollar gas and 10 dollar milk. Good thing the island is only 60miles long and get plenty of critters running around to eat.

 

Update!!!!!!!for everyone not adding anything. Thanks again cheapazzz if it wasnt for you Id be talking to myself. So this will be a purely historical research thread I guess. I even got a freaking video up on here and still....oh well

SO! Anyone who is scared to take this on dont be took me two hours and about 300hundred bucks including a 35mm socket and some other goodies for the tool box.
Got the parts in from napa and was super stoked to start wrenching. Been hitting everything with PB for two days now in preparation. Good idea to do this if your planning on changing out hubs/cv/......... Make sure to hit not just the bolts but mounting surfaces like where the hub meets the spindle. So everything came apart without too much headache. I think the cv flange on the diff side were hardest to break loose. Ended up hitting it with a propane torch and tapping each nut with a home made punch and hammer just to rattle them. Then hitting it with PB while it was still hot and they all popped loose. Besides that caliper/tie rod end/hub nut/shock and brake line brackets all came loose no problemo. even the cv just popped right out. You do not have to remove your ball joints to remove the hub or cv if your doing both. Atleast on my truck. The only thing in the way is the shock. I did not try but I also believe it is very much possible to pull the cv and leave the piece going through the hub without cutting or removing anything but the shock and the flange bolts on the diff side and the clip in the wheel side. After removing the boot of course. So had everything apart and cleaned ready to go back together. So I grab my first box and open her up. Like oooo shiny! But wait this sucker has two splined endsLike sweet I have my truck completely torn up with the wrong parts! So always check your new parts b4 you take your only vehicle apart!
Anywho so thats neither here nor there. Hub Bearing fell apart when I removed it from the truck and figured that was the problem. Grab the new bearing no abs sensor! WTF. Every Youtube video Ive seen shows the abs sensor coming with the new hub. mines still on the dust shield. Its the right bearing though so I Cleaned everything up and put the old shaft back with the new hub. Went together easy. Good time to change pads and rotors. My pads were good but the rotor was pitted with rust spots. So I replaced the rotor.
The click click is gone but the vibration persists. Feels like its alot less then before. New Shaft comes in tomorrow and I get to do it all again! YAY Thanks Napa! I also had to sit there for an hour and beat it in to the guys head that GM vehicles have a flange on both sides of the diff. He even had GM fax a picture of a blown up image of a 97gmc jimmy 4wd front diff blow up with double splined shafts. Out of all the Youtube videos I watched I never saw one GM 4wd with a double splined shaft. They decided I swapped transfer cases. Im like wtf does that have to do with the front diff......never mind get my freaking CV! Rock auto for sure next time!
So lessons learned,money and time wasted typical weekend warrior stuff. Hope this helps the next guy. Have pictures tried to upload but doesnt like work Aloha

 

Glad to hear the repairs are going well and as planned. Sucks gettin wrong parts, thats what happens when parts stores don't pay well and can't afford x mechanics.
As far as the vibration goes....could be as simple as a balance issue - could've thrown a weight or have mud stuck on the inside of the rim or could be as bad as a bent rim, flat spot on the tire or an out of round/seperated tire. If u can, run it to a tire shop and see if they will check balance and spin em up to check for anything bent or tire runout (out of round). Hopefully its that simple but ya never know.
Good luck! Happy hunting!