Any powertrain experts out there who can help diagnose my weird noise?

[jaredawoodruff]

Hello!

So just out of no where, my 4wd 4Runner just started making the weirdest noise.

Here's the lo-down:

It happens during deceleration, intermittently and to varying degrees, between 40mph and 25mph. Never during acceleration and rarely during braking.

There's a soft, steady vibration that I feel in my feet and I can hear a hum/buzz that is akin to road noise, but more mechanical.

I checked my u-joints and couldn't produce any play.

Here's the kicker: I removed the drive shaft from the rear diff and checked for pinion play and got nothing. Just a little backlash but nothing out of the ordinary. I couldn't wiggle the pinion AT ALL, just rotate it and the truck would roll.

Turning seems to have no effect on the occurrence or nature of the noise.

What places should I be looking at for issues?

Cheers,
Jared

 

[jaredawoodruff]

Update:

The FSM seems to say it's the u-joints or the yoke. I'll completely remove the DS tomorrow and follow it's instructions.

 

[jaredawoodruff]

Following a suggestion from the internet, I completely removed the rear drive shaft and put the truck in 4wd and went on a test drive. The issue SEEMED to have dissappeared, but I'm not 100% confident yet.

I'm going to give my drive shaft a good inspection now that it's off and see if I can find any issues.