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Out of the experience of the owners' here, what do you think is the weakest part in the drive train....

Also is the 4spd 4x4 tranny and the 5spd 2x4 swappable on the 2.2l?

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-Old ride-82 Luv diesel 5spd with some upgrades
-Past rides-82 Sierra, 78 Coupe De'Ville, 91 2dr Blazer, 86 RX7, 86 Porsche 944T (rear-ended and totaled)
-Curr. rides- 1970 Ford LTD 4dr, 390 4Bbl, 2nd owner! With a few Extras 00' Civic beater...

Drive train weak links, lets see: U-Joints can be in the rear, but usually only when they are already worn out. Other than that, the pinion bearing is a common wear-out point for the rear. I've done in two over the years. For the front it has to be those CV joints. I've looked at a couple of luvs with mangled front parts and its always looked like a CV failure. I've yet to see anything simple like a hub getting stripped out or a shaft breaking.

On the trannys, Even on the diesel the transfer case is built into the transmission, so if you swap out the 4spd from a 4WD, you are also pulling the 4WD out of the truck. You'd have to get a 5spd from a 4x4. I assume one from a Trooper with the Turbo diesel would fit with only minor mods. Might be fun to put the turbo motor in there as well.

Could that be a pinging noise when i quickly take my foot of the accel. or is that backlash or sominthin'. My dad says it's a common thing with his truck and he's got a 2.2l diesel isuzu pup, same year as mine and same trans.

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-Old ride-82 Luv diesel 5spd with some upgrades
-Past rides-82 Sierra, 78 Coupe De'Ville, 91 2dr Blazer, 86 RX7, 86 Porsche 944T (rear-ended and totaled)
-Curr. rides- 1970 Ford LTD 4dr, 390 4Bbl, 2nd owner! With a few Extras 00' Civic beater...

Mine both growled when they went out. A low grrrunggrrrrung noise when you let off the gas to slow down. They also didn't make a sound until quite suddenly. I went from running fine to 1/4 inch of movement on the pinion shaft when I wiggled it in roughly 60 miles. If the pinion is very bad at all, you will have a lot of lube coming out around the shaft going into the axle, and it will clunk back and forth when you wiggle it around. If you hear a noise from it, it would basically be already gone and done for.

Noises from the rear can come from all sorts of things. Gears not properly meshed, worn out wheel bearings, u-joints, etc. I don't know about a ping, but my 77 did sort of make a ding/ping noise going from accel to decel and vice versa when I had a u-joint getting bad. Give the driveline a tap with something and see if it sounds anything like the noise you hear. If so, its probably something attached to it like a u-joint or maybe even wear on the splines in the yoke/trans tailshaft.