3rd Gen Limited - Popping sound from front end only in full time 4wd?
 

I have a 1999 Limited 4wd, USA market so 3.4 liter V6 and automatic.

I recently had the steering rack replaced because the old rack was extremely vague and leaking fluid pretty badly. While the steering is now very accurate and feels great, there’s now a popping or clunking sound from the front end in low speed corners with AWD (full time 4wd) engaged. This iteration of the transfer case has a center differential, and can be run in full-time 4wd which is great for changing conditions that we run into when driving up to ski in Washington State.

The 4Runner doesn’t exhibit this when run in 2wd.

My thoughts are that it might need new CV axles, but is there anything else that I should have a shop check out? For what it’s worth I had a 2.5 inch front/2 inch rear lift with a Dobinsons suspension that I had put on in 2021 and have about 20k miles on the setup.