2000 Ford Explorer 5.0 AWD knocking noises

So my husband took out the front drive shaft and the noise stopped. He is replacing the CV joint on the front drive shaft and as a precautionary measure he is changing out the U-joints plus servicing all of the fluids. I just got back from driving it minus the front drive shaft and it was the smoothest ride I have ever taken in it. Thank you guys for all of your help and I will continue to update once the repairs are made and the driveshaft is back in.

Awesome. I am glad we all got together to help assess your problem. Please let us know the precise final diagnosis, so we can store this in our mechanic memory banks :).

Okay so we had a few delays with two CV joints being shipped with broken seals, we also went ahead and replaced all of the u-joints in the car. Once we finally got a good CV joint and got it installed the noises were gone and it is riding smooth once again. Total cost for repairs was just at 100.00 because we had Autozone bucks to cash in. Thank you all so much for all of your help, this has become my go to forum for car repair questions!

Phenomenal, I am glad we could help and that it's all fixed up. For a good price as well!