ok so not 1" play in chain. it was bad but not as bad as i first thought. replaced timing chain and all the attachments. THE NOISE IS STILL THERE. i had taken it to a shop and they said cracked exhaust manifold. is that something that could cause this noise?

 

wasnt the chain. i replaced that.

after many months of frustration and fixing many things on the truck i am now 95% sure that it was an exhaust leak. HAHA! well its kinda funny. anyway i JB welded up the hole as best i can with 2 tubes. the noise was still present but much less. i am going to put another 2 tubes on with some aluminum tape to keep it in contact. it is right after the header pipe comes together as one off the manifold. big relief but also really annoying that i sunk a bunch of money and time on something so simple. probably bumped it when doing clutch.

 

crack in the "Y-pipe"? pretty common area, mine had it.
as much as I love JBWeld, I can't really see it holding up in this repair, it gets too hot there. maybe if its the high temp stuff, maybe. the only real repair is to take it apart and weld the crack. probably took me an hour each for removal and install. before taking apart, get new donut gaskets, studs and lock nuts - dealer only parts IIRC.
Still don't see how an exhaust leak is going to cause yoke grind, but this is still something you should get taken care of since your o2 sensor may be effected by the leak.

 

The yoke grind was just a guess because it sounded like a grinding noise.

 

Final Update

the rattle was from exhaust leak. the vibration i have now narrowed down to leaf spring bushings being bad. thats why having the ZUK mod off made the problem arise.