Hello, I am new to the third gen 4Runners and I just bought one that may have an issue in the transfer case. The small lot I bought the truck from told me their mechanic told him it was a wheel bearing. There is a pretty bad grinding noise between 30-50 mph. It does not change in 2wd or 4wd. I climbed under the 4Runner to check all shafts that I could for anything loose and didn't notice anything. I did notice, while in Park, the front drive shaft turn freely having a rather rough grind sound to it.

I also noticed while driving it that going between gears; park to drive, or park to reverse, the trans seems to jump a little bit. As if there is some slack in a U-joint somewhere. Not sure if these two issues are connected. The truck has 170K miles on it. Thanks for any pointers!