I have a 99 dodge 1500 4x4. Lately, I've heard kind of a clicking, metal grinding sound from my front axle. I replaced the cardinal joints on both sides and the hub assembly on both sides. Has anyone come across this as well? If so, how hard is it to dig in the front axle. I'm guessing it's a bearing in the differential case. Any ideas? thanks!

 

That sound is usually caused by a bad wheel bearing, but It could be a carrier bearing. Can you jack the front of the truck up and spin the tires by hand and see if you can hear any noises?

 

Yeah, when you jack the truck up you can hear the noise still. It's coming from the diff on the left side. It doesn't make the sound on the right.

 

Like the BurningRom said, it is probably the wheel bearing and from what you describe it is the left side with the issue. However, if metal is floating around the differential you probably want to replace both bearings and do as good of a cleanup of everything else that you can.