I have a 95 tracker LSi that started up with this noise. The only time I haver ever experienced a noise like this in the past, it was the dust shields behind the disc brakes on the front. This is where the sound seems to be coming from, but I can't find the cause. It doesnt appear to be the dust shields on this one. The brakes are new front and back, including wheel cylinders and calipers. New shocks, all joints appear tight and there is little to no play in steering etc.. The noise seems most pronounced when coast between 1 to 10 mph.... it goes away when you accelerate and comes back again at low speeds coasting. Wouldn't seem to be anything with the  driveshafts, cvs etc since they are not spinning in 2wd at all. Any suggestions? This is driving me nuts.

Check your PM 

Zig

I got the tracker up on jackstands this afternoon and found something, not entirely sure what it means, but here goes

When I put the front of the vehicle up on stands, and grab hold of the wheels to try and find play in the system, pass side is tight no slop at all. Drivers side only has slight play from side to side when looking at the outside of the rim, and there is a clunk noise coming from somewhere up high on the drivers side.... could this mean play in the steering linkage or tie rod ends somewhere? I would think the clunk would be down near the control arm if it was tie rod right?

Confused now, but at least I found something out of sorts with it to explain something. still dont explain the scraping noise, but hey its a start.......

any thoughts?

OK, now I am embarassed. I checked everything out again on the front end, the "clunk" I heard in the steering is for sure the joint in the steering shaft coming from the steering wheel. There is a joint near the exhaust manifold and brake master cylinder, it appears the slop in that is slight and appears to be benign.

So, I put it together again and let it down off the jackstands and took it for a ride in a quiet area with a brick wall to bounce the sound back and help me isolate the direction its coming from.

Now I am certain its coming from the rear drivers side wheel area. Since the brakes and shocks are brand new, it leaves only a defective wheelbearing or a problem inside the axle tube.

Any idea how much it is to do a rear wheel bearing for this?

the only thing that bothers me about this diagnostic is that the only wheelbearings I have heard when failing had a rythmic whine or grind steady at any speed the vehicle is traveling. This is a scraping/ clunking noise at low coasting speeds or when slowing down. it goes away/lessens dramatically when you step on the gas.  is there anything else in the rear wheel that would cause noises? the brake wheel cylinders are brand new and the shocks are as well....

Could be a piece of brake hardware that has come loose and is rubbing the inside of the drum. Could also be dirt/rocks in the drums. Usually though when you hear a noise like you describe when slowing or coasting that goes away when you accelerate it's a pinion bearing going bad...

Just got back from the parts places around me, no one has a drum in stock and I ordered one in, will be here tuesday. In the mean time I tore it down again this morning, and cant see anything really out of sorts with it. I cleaned everything up with brake cleaner and will be replacing the brake hardware even though it doesnt look bad. with the wheel and drum off the vehicle, there is around 1/16 of an inch play in/out on the axle shaft, is this normal? there doesnt appear to be any movement up or down and it turns smoothly. no signs of noise from the diff r&p area that I can tell, also no leaks of gear oil to be found anywhere. just slight moisture on the diff itself which is pretty well normal for a vehicle of this age right?

I put it back together after cleaning everything up, and installed the 2 missing nuts/lockwashers that hold the brake drums to the axle flange, and that solved the problem. no more noise.

moral of the story is that "Just Brakes inc." should be called "Just F**ked my brakes up Inc."

with the 2 nuts missing, this allowed the drum/wheel assembly to pivot on the end of the axle shaft, which caused the pads to not seat correctly with the drum face, therefor causing all kinds of nasty noises.

Parts costs
2 x nut 1.99
1 pack of 1/2 inch lock washers 1.99
net total 3.98
no more noise= priceless

Not only that, but that wheel was only held on by those 2 nuts!

My throw out bearing sounds like that... its real bad!