So I went ahead with the recommendation of
@13mclean back early July. I ordered the Montero axle from AutoZone. When compressed, it was maybe a quarter of half inch shorter than the original, but when fully extended it was exactly the same length. I followed @Growlerbearns post on the Canadian forum for how to remove it. You can find his amazingly detailed walk-through
here. I had an issue with the c-clip on the inner stub shaft. At peak frustration, I whacked the outer shaft end with a 3lb sledge
to try to pop it in there. When that didn't work, I had to remove it and crimp the c-clip tighter in order to allow it to pop in to place in the front diff. Once I did that it clicked in right away. I learned my lesson: precisely machined parts and hammers don't mix. A few of the outer splines were mashed and I didn't know this until I tried to slip the locking hub assembly over it. A few minutes with a hand file and I was back in business. Once I had it all back together I took her for a spin and had zero issues.
Right around the same time I did this work, I had new tires installed (General Grabber AT2 - very happy with them) AND an alignment done. In the weeks following a creaking/popping sound developed on slow, tight right turns. When I was doing the CV axle job I had to separate the outer tie rod and in the process I split the dust boot. So I replaced that after finishing up that job. I thought maybe that was the sound. I took it back to the alignment shop thinking maybe when they were tweaking the cam bolts something happened - I was told at the time of the alignment time that they were pretty stripped out and couldn't be adjusted much more. The guy at the shop had it up on a lift and checked all the suspension parts and said nothing looked suspicious. I was in the garage with him as he was tugging on parts and trying to wiggle things around. Nothing jumped out at us. He thought that maybe the grease in the upper ball joint moved around when I had the steering knuckle assembly off for the CV axle job and was now binding/popping. It did look like it could use some grease, however that upper ball joint is a sealed one - no grease nip
(why is that even a thing).
Shortly after this inspection I went on a trip to SE Oregon through the Owyhee canyon land area. I spent ~150 miles on rough roads in 4H and 4L with zero issues in performance. The van did great in the desert, crawling up and down those rocky roads. But I'm wondering if all the bumping around exacerbated all the front end sounds.
Any thoughts out there?
