Hello everyone,
Newby to the forum here. So, I bought a low mileage (50K) alpha a few years ago. The truck resided in the Chicago suburbs I believe, so lots of rust underneath. We drove it for 6K miles with no issues. Then it started making clicking/grinding noises. I saw the hubs on both sides were bad. Interestingly, this happened simultaneously. The local garage changed them out but, though the noise decreased it was still there. Long story short, we changed both unit bearings 1X, both 1/2 shafts 2X's, the first time the boots were rotted off. The 2nd time with hardly any miles the CV joints already had a bunch of play in them. We also changed the front diff, the front driveshaft 3Xs. And, the sound is still there. Oh, we changed out the Tcase also.
The sound goes away when I remove the front driveshaft...so,no forward pressure. It doesn't seem to make noise going backward though, I am not heavy on the gas going backwards. The sound is still there in 4WD.
The new unit bearings may have been over torqued. I am not sure as I did not install them. But, can over-torqing instantly ruin those bearings? The reason I think it may be that is we changed almost everything else more than once. Now, a few thousand miles later the sound is getting worse but when I put it up on jacks I can't get anything to make noise or show play. Are carquest driveshafts and unit bearings and CVjoint 1/2 shafts pieces of junk where they would make noise even though they are new?
Any thoughts anyone?

On a side note, I saw in another post on this site about rear leaf springs. I thought it was due to the fact that there was quite a bit of rust on the exposed parts underneath, however, the passenger side leaf spring where it wraps around the bushing cracked. I bought a set from ebay. I have yet to change the passenger side one. Also, the front suspension bump stops rotted off. I bought some off of ebay but they were completely wrong. I don't have any bump stops presently.

 

Welcome!
Let's start at the beginning.
What has been replaced?
1) Front hubs
2) Font 1/2 shafts
3) Front diff

Have you measured to see if your H3 has had torsion bars cranked to the moon? Have you replaced Front prop shaft, rear prop shaft?
Reason I ask... you stated "I pulled the front drive shaft and there's no noise".
As a side note; try to stay with quality vendors such as Timkin, moog, ac Delco, etc.

 

NICE!! My post went through.
Front driveshaft was replaced twice.
Rear...did not replace.
Front unit bearings....replaced 1X
1/2 shafts///twice
front diff...once
transfer case..once

There is a leveling kit but the torsion bars are not tweaked all the way. I see where you are going with this. However.........

 

If you are using cheap knock off Asian parts, you will be redoing repairs. It is important to use AC Delco front half shafts. Yeah they are expensive and in low stock, but you do the repair once.

There are a lot of cheap off brand front drive shafts out there, you wont find one on my truck. Cheap is for a reason.

Leveling kits are a waste of money, the stock T Bar keys can get you all the lift an H3 can handle. 23.5" Max from fender lip to hub center. Any more than that you will tear stuff up. Like half shafts and ball joints. What is your measurement?

Who calls a Hub a Unit bearing?

 

FORD people

 

Ahhh.... no wonder, I am not a Ford guy.