4 Wheel Drive/SUVs: clicking noise 2003 silverado, needle bearings, grease fittings

Question
Hi, I bought my 2003 silverado 2 months ago. It has 37" tires and 6" of lift. A few weeks ago I noticed a clicking sound coming from underneath the middle of the truck while in 2wd. I assumed that it was a ujoint or something minor because it wasn't too loud and didn't get any worse and it still had the original ujoints(no grease fittings). Then I went to the beach and had to lock it in and the noise immediately got worse and even worse when I got into some bad sand. After a few minutes I also started hearing some more racket with the clicking like maybe some scraping like something was broken inside. The clicking increases with your speed and is much louder in 4wd. I'm thinking transfer case? What do you think?

Answer
Tonya,

I would bet that your first guess is probably right.  Sometimes a u-joint can be bad, or dry causing this problem, and you really can't tell until you pull the end caps, and check the needle bearings.  With the lift, your driveline angle is quite a bit more than stock, and this can be hard on u-joints.

Before you spend the bucks to tear down your transfer case, pull the u-joints, and check them out.

Carl