Howling grinding noise

Clearly this does point to a bearing issue as you are suspecting. The only thing we have to be careful about is a noise that is translating from another source to make it sound like it is coming from the front.

Here are a couple guides that may help others with this as it sounds like you are narrowing down your issue:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/vehicle-grinding-noise

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-howling-noise

What I would do for this specific issue at this point is lift the vehicle on jack stands and spin the wheels so that you can lay under it and pinpoint where the noise is coming from.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/jack-up-and-lift-your-car-safely

Based on experience, I am going to suspect this is a pinion bearing in the front differential.

So that means you should be able to service the front diff and find metal in the fluid.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/differential-service

Please run through this info and let me know what you find.

Thanks