Gerbil noises from the front end

My friend has a 89 xj with... i think 110,000 miles on it. they guy that owned it before him used it when he went camping to carry fire wood and camping gear. So it has seen its fair share of the trails. also he lifted it 4.5" with rustys kit. a couple days ago it devloped a weird squeaking noise coming from the front end. at first we thought u joints, but we checked them and they are fine. Then we were thinking a bearing in the tcase, because his tcase is pretty much shot. It never goes into or out of of gear easily. it takes a lot of shifting, neutral, then reveres then drive, then try again. Beside that it was driven with no fluid in the tcase for a good amount of trail time. we spoke with a "mechanic" and he said that if it was a bearing it would make a screaching sound constantly... which it doesnt. it is intermitant but is more often then not making the sound. It sounds like a bunch of gerbils, or a squeaky wheel on a shopping cart. we now think the noise is coming from the front axle.... I think from the pumpkin. maybe its the pinion bearing? Has anyone ever heard of a problem like this? any ideas, suggestions, opinions, guesses, whatever would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, you've got Richard Gere in the drivetrain. Remove him and you'll be fine.

Do a search for "angry sparrow" or "centering kit" because it sounds like the centering kit on the front axle is dried out. It's pretty common and comes up in here fairly often. Take the driveshaft out and see if the noise goes away to confirm that.

casm said:

Oh, you've got Richard Gere in the drivetrain. Remove him and you'll be fine.

Click to expand...

LOL!

as for the centering kit... ive never heard of it. I'll try that search. Thanks.