ok so today i went to go put my truck in 4 wheel drive an it made a grinding noise. the only time it makes the noise is if its in gear trying to go forward. this is the first time ive had a problem like this. now the tuff part. i went to pull in to a feild the other night and one tire miss the drive. it hit a ditch hard. i pulled it in 4 wheel and pulled right on out but didnt have to go far. i heard a grinding noise that night but didnt think much of it bc when i put it out of 4 wheel it drives fine so i wasnt sure wat the problem was. does it sound like front end or transfer case? let me know wat yall think

 

Year and motor please?

 

it is a 99 4x4 with a 3.9

 

You probly want to crawl under the truck and take a look at things. My dad had a similar thing happen with his dakota and it turned out that the the housing around the input shaft on the front axle had broken. I've heard that these front ends are pretty weak. We replaced it with a front end from the junk yard.

 

2 yrs ago i had a grindy vibration and took a look and i also had a split housing, so i put in a new rebuilt 231 and it has been perfect since but if u have a lift the rear angle may be to much which will cause the housing to crack, just crawl under it and look carefully. let me know what ya find.

 

maybe you could disconnect the front drive shaft and then put it in 4wd and if it does it then its the tcase just an idea though i'm not 100% sure if this would work tho haha it seems like it would htough