I am inquiring for my son who has a 97 jgc. while driving the other day on the highway he heard a pop noise followed by alot of smoke all around and inside the car. he made it the rest of the way to work and parked it. he noticed later that there was oil/fluid on the drivers side toward the front of the car on the ground. uncle cam over and said that the fliud/oil line to the front driver tire (4x4) box had melted and lost the fluid. they fixed that but now the jeep is making a loud humming noise when driving it. also previous to this happening he was having trouble with turning and the jeep not wanting to go when it was a sharp turn. now however since this happened it is no longer giving him a problem when making sharp turns but now has that humming noise. anyone have any idea of what noise is and why the issue with turning has gone away.

Smoke might have been the fluid burning off when it hit something hot.

What fluid was lost? It's hard to tell from your description. And was the fluid replaced before he started driving it again? If not, stop right away and fill up whatever was lost.

the fluid was gear fluid. and he did not fix the line/hose until he got it back home. his uncle fixed the hose and put more gear fluid in it. the truck is making a humming/whining noise which started about the same time the hose blew. and when making the sharp turns it is not acting up like it always did.

check the transfer case fluid, my jeep also made several sounds due to the transfer case

Hopefully all will be fine with it, but after being driven without the gear lube in there, a problem may show up after awhile.