After going a week and a half without my baby, I finally got to pick her up from the mechanics this morning and she's running quieter than she has in a long time.

For those who have been following, and those who haven't, I had a bad vibration/grinding noise at highway speeds that made my teeth itch. It felt like it was coming from right below the drivers seat and I could feel it in the floor board through my feet. I chased down the usual suspects; checked engine and transmission mounts (OK), greased the zerk fittings on the drive shaft (good to go), and checked the transfer case fluid level (honky dory). None of that solved the problem. I knew that I had a split inner drivers side CV boot, but I didn't think that that would make all that racket. The CV was clicking in four wheel drive, but other than that didn't make any noise.

Got Vicki into the mechanics (because I just didn't have the time to do it myself), and when they tore the CV down and found that the outer race was boogered up. Since it, obviously, needed to be taken care of and it would help to eliminate one link in the chain of possible noise producers, we sent the axle off to a CV place and they refurbished the outer race. Everything was put back together (with new boot, axle seal, axle bearing, etc.) and now the noise is gone. WOOHOO!!

Who would have thought that a bad CV would have made that much of a racket. I guess since the center section of the axle is hard mounted to the frame the noise and vibration was traveling back through the frame (and possibly the torsion bars) and showing up under the seats. Now I know.

Just as a back up plan I have a driver side axle that I found in a salvage yard on it's way, and as a back up to the back up plan I now have all of the part numbers from EMPI to replace everything.

A HUGE thanks to Triathlete, Marlin, Tom4Bren and BigMeatVX for all of their help through this ordeal. You guys are the best!! I love this family.