@Mandrake and
@Kernal There is some funky stuff going on.
I don't understand how the hub nut could have come loose. It has a keyed ring with two set screws. Those set screws BTW have have their heads half shined off. I suppose they were rubbing against something, but there was enough head to hold the ring in place. the phillips slot was completely rubbed off. I had to use needle nose to turn them.
It was driving fine yesterday. How could the nuts possibly loosen overnight?
I pulled the driveshaft and locked the center diff. I happily have a switch for that. Vehicle drives, for now, however.
I tightened the hub nut to the point where the hub spins well, but doesn't wiggle. That was on the pass side, where I heard the noise. I checked the drvr side and that wheel doesn't wiggle much. Only had time to open one hub tonight. I drove home with the radio off, listening. I didn't hear much on the highway, or while driving forward, even when doing a few tight radius turns. When I backed into the driveway, the pass side wheel bound and made a big thud as I backed into my parking spot. Shook the whole truck. So, IDK.
I'm thinking, maybe if something else inside the hub were disintegrating, the nut could be loosened by having less behind it. I saw no immediate evidence of this, but was doing a parking lot, get me home attempt at things. I didn't pull the bearing, as I didn't have any grease on me.
Mentioning the grease, there should be plenty of grease inside the birf ball, because on the last panic session, I pumped an entire tube into each one, thinking they were dry. That turned out to be the driveshaft bolts.
I don't think I'll drive it tomorrow. Not worth it to go to a Dr appointment if I destroy the truck to get there.
Quoting
@Kernal :
"If you can drive the vehicle and now it feels like it's binding it may mean that your viscous coupler (inside the transfer case) is sticking/binding ie: damaged from too much heat/friction internally."
Responding: I am fairly certain that the binding is in the front, with no front driveshaft. When I took the front driveshaft out and locked the center diff, the truck did drive better, but then deteriorated again over the next hour of driving. I will probably remove the VC because of the initial improvement, and all the threads saying that they fail and can be discarded. That still leaves me with the front wheel binding issue.
Thanks to both of you for your help.
David
