BTW, if you drop your front shaft, have someone in the cab put it in gear and see if the yoke is spinning on the TC as they roll it out slowly and you watch. You can do this test just by dropping the aft front shaft and reach up to turn the yoke. If it doesn't rotate, your locked up and that could be your problem. Would explain the heat.

Denny

 

No sir, to a point, just the indicator on the dash and it's fused for indication if I'm reading this right. Try that above. Somethings stuck. Kinda thinkin your locked and regardless of hub speed, your twirling the front shaft with hubs unlocked.

 

 

I had somebody drive the truck while I was watching underneath and the front drive shaft doesn't move it all. I drove the truck this morning without a heavy load and the front drive shaft was not hot. Going to haul a trailer this afternoon to see if it gets hot again

 

My guess is going to be transfer case related. You stated early on that the driveshaft spins freely, so obviously your case wasn't locked (that would've required a major breakage). Front diff doesn't seem very likely to generate much heat in your circumstances. Only thing that makes me wonder, although its rather subjective, is you said the transfer case didn't feel as hot as the driveshaft. Maybe the exhaust leak suggestion was right?

Did you ever check the fluid level? Fluid should basically flow out of the fill plug to be considered "full".