Skinny Man wrote:
I had a truck come in to our shop a few years ago with a bearing type whine that sounded like it was coming from the transfer case or rear diff. After checking both of them and finding nothing wrong we decided to check the fluid in the front diff. The fluid was full of metal. The inner pinion bearing was bad. Only explanation I could think of was the noise was traveling down the driveshaft. Not saying this is your problem but it might be worth looking at.
I thought that too except the front drive shaft isn't turning in 2wd and this only does it under load so it can't be the front diff.