Clanging noise in rear end of 02 prerunner

I got my '02 Tacoma on september 7th of this year. it had 172k miles on it. i had a 99 nissan but things started to go wrong and im startin college sometime in january so my mama and uncle found my truck at a dealer in the next town over...me and my mom just moved here to nc so i dont really know much about it here...we're from a small town in georgia, thats where we got the truck from. its a great truck, i love it. loaded, all the goodies. even mechanics that i had service it about a week ago said they think i bought a really good truck. anyway...i'd noticed this noise the day i test drove it. i didnt really pay it much attention. well when we first moved here and got settled my uncle was drivin it an put it in reverse and back out then dropped it in drive. he goes uh oh i hear a u joint. well we got the u joint and our neighbor put it in. i aint no mechanic but my daddy taught me a few thangs about vehicles. so i figured oh he put it in that takes care of the problem. nope..it still does it. he said somethin bout it could be some rubber sleeve or somethin. the old u joint was pretty warped. its a 2wd model. it just sounds like when metal hits metal. its a clangin noise. i'm not gonna worry with it unless i figure out if its somethin that needs serious attention or not. because i dont have the kinda $$ to just up an fix shit. ha. any ideas or advice would help. a lot. thanks!

 

Hey, welcome to TW.

I would suggest you start by crawling under your truck and greasing all the fittings on your drive line. This may help out with the specific issue you have raised and it may actually help address the problem. For sure what it will do is get you more familiar with your vehicle.

Here is a link that will help you get started:
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/92105-zerks-grease.html