I recently bought an '87 Samurai hard top. It had quite a bit of front end noise in 4-w drive with the hubs engaged. I pulled the wheel assemblies and everything looked good and seemed smooth and quiet but the differential had quite a bit of end play and a little grinding when rotating by hand so I pulled it and got another clean, used one to replace it. Now I noticed that the front axles on both sides have maybe 1/8th to 3/16's inch of end play. Could that be where I was getting the rattle from and should I rebuild/replace the wheel knuckles too. The hubs seem good and they work smoothly.
Thanks a lot
garyvd

By "end play" are you meaning you can pull the axleshafts in and out?  If so, it is normal, don't worry about it.

Yes. Rotationally, it is quite tight in my rather uninformed opinion.