my noise sounded like it was coming from the drivers side front wheel - at least thats what it sounded like when inside the vehicle - had to get out and have someone else drive it to tell it was really coming from the middle - still never really sounded like the tcase, but having it rebuilt fixed it - hopefully with hcloud it is something less expensive
started out pinging and occasionally popping, then got worse and would sound like rubbing and as if it was going into 4lo when i took a sharpish corner (like pulling into a parking space)
i know what cv's going bad sound like and this was a different animal - i almost thought it was something wrong in the steering box or power steering system but that all checked out fine