To make a long story short my front end has been making a few strange noises for a while now. Every time I was about to dig into it the problem would seem to stop. There would be a funny sound when I hit a bump, and it would continue with a vibration for a few seconds. It felt like a wheel bearing or something. Then my 4wd stopped working. When it was engaged I woiuld feel it lock in and then unlock almost immediatly. I was about to fix it but I had to make a run aobut 800 miles yesterday. The second 400 towing about 9,000lbs. Not too much weight, just a long distance.
Then about 300 miles in the noise started. When I would hit bumps it would make more noise than usual. Then I got out and saw the culprit!!! Fluid leaking out of my drivers side axle. obviously the bearing/seal just before the U-joint had gone out. completely out. I could wiggle the U joint about an inch in any direction. So I checked the diff and the it hadn't leaked out very much. I stopped at a schucks and got some diff fluid and a pump. Filled it up. By then the noise was worse and the other side wanted to join the party. The fluid wasn't flowing freely out but it was dripping regularly. Every 100 miles or so I have to put in more diff fluid. I somehow made it home without anything blowing out the side of the diff. Just lotsa bad scary noises. I figured even if something bad broke it wouldn't be able to stop 15000 pounds+. So the tires prolly wouldn't lock up.
Anyways. It appears that the hubs are broken. As well as the seal, bearings on the axle. Is that correct?
What parts do I need? I'm semi experienced when if comes to engine work but I have little experience with axles. Thanks so much for the help!!

 

The bad and scary noises were more then likely the inner- axle bearings, which is located inside the unit bearings. There is no bearing on the outer edge of the axle tube. There is one on each side of the differential, that the axles seal the diff fluid in, you more then likely need to also replace those to fix your leak. Id highly reccomend both at the same time, and you need to pull your axle shafts out, and the carrier aswell. The axle bearings inside the unit hub are less then $10 usually from napa. The u joints are aloud to have some play, they need that for turning. However, id bet it tightend up some from what you say yours moved, if you replaced the inner axle bearings, inside the unit hub. Good luck, and hope that helps.