1996, 4.0, auto

First off... sorry for the extra long post, but I need help with the sleuthing, so all of the Sherlock Holmes "want to be's", please help.

Hoping someone can give me an idea of where to look for this.

Last week, I started hearing a slight ticking when the windows were down, that was tied in to the speed of the wheels. It sounded exactly like when you get a rock stuck in your treads, but this ticking would go away whenever I hit the brakes. (Checked for rocks in the treads anyways, but didn't find any). It didn't matter how hard or soft I pushed the pedal... at the slightest braking pressure, the ticking stopped. (Brake related, right?)

I didn't give it much of a thought, the Jeep sat most of the weekend, then on my way to work on Monday, I heard it again. Same ticking, went away when brakes were applied. It was definitely the drivers side, but I was having problems pinpointing front or rear because it was so quiet... I heard it most when I was driving past the wall of the building I work in and I was just hearing the echo. It wasn't a horrible sound, but I still didn't like it, and figuring it was brake related, I didn't want to let it linger to long.

Had to work late Monday, so couldn't dig into anything until Tuesday after work, by which time, I had decided it was coming from the rear brakes, because the noise had gotten slightly louder, and during one stop, I would have sworn I heard some grinding during breaking from the back wheel. It wasn't loud, but since I was already trying to be hyper-aware of all of the noises, I know I heard it. Only happened once though. Every stop after that, no grinding.

I did the rear brakes myself earlier this year, new drums, shoes, wheel cylinders, and hardware, and I figured I must have screwed something up, and a spring was flopping around in there, causing the ticking, and it must have gotten caught between the drum and the shoe during that one stop and caused the grinding.

I have a buddy who is building his TJ in the back of his bosses shop, a couple of blocks from where I work, he was there Tuesday night, so I just drove it over to him and we pulled the rear brakes on both sides, expecting to have springs flying, and parts falling, but they were perfect on both sides. Nothing missing, nothing broken, and besides a little brake dust, everything was still nice and clean, and looked to be functioning properly.

Drove home questioning everything about my existence and my desire to drive old Jeeps, and the ticking was still there. Nothing had changed, so I figure my ears are deceiving me and it must really be coming from the front.

So this morning, before work, I pulled off the front tire, expecting to find a loose caliper, bad or loose pads, or something to explain it all.... nope. Everything tight and secure, pads still have a lot of life left... checked the ujoints while I was there, TRE's, hubs.... most, if not all of those parts are new within the past year, and besides the TRE I thought was a little loose but still not horrible, everything else was nice, tight, and functioning perfectly. I spun the rotor, expecting to hear something.... nothing but the normal noise from the brakes pads resting against the rotors, and definitely nothing ticking.

Throw my hands up, put the tire back on, finish getting ready for work, thinking I may break down and take it in to a shop to deal with it, and poof... the noise is gone. I don't hear it at all on my 20 minute drive in, and then I rolled down all the windows when I got to the wall at work, since that's where I always heard it the loudest... and nothing.

I'm glad its gone, but there was something amiss, and I want to be able to put my finger on it, in case it returns, so I can actually fix it proper.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give as many details as I could because I am just at a loss, and was hoping someone might have an idea of what caused it, and why it suddenly went away. The only thing I can think of was some dirt of something kept the wheel from seating properly and when I pulled it off, the dirt came free... but if that were really the case, I thought I'd have a vibration, and it shouldn't have been effected by braking... right? And what about that grinding I heard? I am completely flummoxed.

Any thoughts are much appreciated.

 

Just
Expect
Extra
Pops and clunks
?

Idk man! Pretty random.. Glad it's gone either way!

 

Yup... on the drive home, still no noise, so I guess whatever it was, corrected itself or was taken care of by my fiddling this morning.

 

It's solved, let it go.....really. I've had a few similar occasions and sometimes there's just something a little out of place or something stuck somewhere that you don't see that goes away after taking things apart. If it comes back you could put it up on stands and run it so you can poke around and hopefully pinpoint it.