It all started when I was getting out of my snowy driveway on reverse on 4x4 HI. To get in the street straight I was turning the steering wheel almost all the way left, then the truck didn't really want to back up anymore after a couple of feet. I felt like the front wheels were forcing (going backward on 4x4, steering wheel turned all the way), so I did something I shouldn't have done. I gave it more gas to try to make it where I wanted in the street. Then I heard something SNAP! and the truck did continue to reverse.

After this I put truck in Drive then on 2WD and drive away. Everything sounded good at the time, but a couple miles away when I come up to a stop I slow down and hear a grinding noise slowing down, it sounded like a completely worn out wheel bearing, even noisier. It's been 2 weeks that this happened and the grinding noise isn't always there I would say it makes this noise 1 time out of 3.

I took my truck on my friend's lift yesterday and we took a fast look at it and it seems that there's a problem in the front differential. The front wheels doesn't turn when I engage the 4x4 but the front driveshaft turns. So the noise is probably coming from the front diffenrential.

By the way my truck is on 31" so it might have put a lot of stress on the 4x4 system.

I want to know if any of you know what could have break when I heard the snap. I don't know 4x4 systems really well I know the basics but that's it.. thanks!

 

You likely have broken something in the front axle engagement system. Front axle engagement is accomplished by a shift fork pulling a splined collar over the passenger side extension axle spline, engaging it to the differential center section.

You can get to these parts by pulling the passenger side axle extension housing off of the differential.

Here's what all of the parts look like:

 

Thank you that makes sense, I will look into this.