Ok,that was EASY! This on a scale of effort and ability from 1-10, 10 being hardest was like a "1".
Disassembly was very easy. All looked very good for 110K miles. No evidence of any damage or excessive wear on parts/gears. Nothing was sticking either. All parts were moving with no effort.
Cleaned and regreased and reassembled. Done.

Now for test drive, but guarantee this is not the issue with the popping as all parts were clean and in working order. Engagement of drive axle with rotation of hub either locks or unlocks the axle same as before. Seems that you have to rotate back and forth a couple of times though to really disengage the axle.

Maybe when driving it, it will eventuallly disengage, dunno.

But for now, the are both dis-engaged and in auto mode.

Will test out when I get out again over the weekend and let you now. Also lubed up the UJoints again.

 

Ok, update...

Took her out and she still popped when turning in a tight circle.

Thought, why don't I engage 4X4 and turn and see if it changes anything.

Engaged and as I turned, it jumped and bucked like normal on dry asphalt. Made a couple of circles, then put back to 2wd.

Now, no more popping? I wonder what made it clear up. Maybe the stress loosed or reseated the UJoints or the lube got into them due to the stress.

Anyhow, for now, I could not get it to pop anymore, but due to volume of cars in the lots at lunch time, I could not keep trying.

I think it might be ok now.

What do you think might have changed?

 

Did you ever figure this out? dealing with this now

 

Body mounts are the culprit! They look good, but are for sure making all the noise. Someone mentioned to spray them with some lubricant like wd40, but made it way worse. I sprayed all of them on the forward cab area and now sounds like it is falling apart when driving!
was trying to find a shop that could change them out, but no one will do this type of work. So guess I will have to give it a try on my own!