Excessive Drive Shaft Angle

XCRN

XCRN

TJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Messages
526
Location
Springfield OH
Does this seem like it was too much DS angle? Just yeeted it self on the highway and this does not look like it would have been enough angle to cause that. I lifted it from 2in to 3in and then went on a 600mile trip and the bang it went an hour away from home. I had vibrations at certain speeds that I was chalking up to my exhaust rubbing on the trackbar. But I am not sure if it was the angle or a DS failure. It looks to have failed at the transfercase side.

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TurboTJ said:
The angles look fine to me. When is the last time you greased the centering ball in the double Cardan? I’ll bet that is what failed.
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The DS itself has less than 30k miles and I have not greased it.

Edit: I will also note I had the U-joint closest to the transfercase failed last year but I caught it soon enough. This time it looks like it was the Ujoing on the Cardan that is closer to the axle is what failed. Both were supplied from Tomwoods, but I replaced the outer with a Spicer last year.
 
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freedom_in_4low said:
Wow. Hard to tell what went first... But definitely something in the driveshaft.


I believe the recommended interval for greasing the centering ball is something like every other oil change, so at 30k you're well past that.
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Oh…whoops. That is good to know, might need to tend to the front soon so its not a repeat. And that one I feel would be worse since there is less egress for it to escape and would take out many other things with it like an oil pan. I looked closer, maybe the inner joint ran dry?

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XCRN said:
If you are talking about the half with the female end of the slip yoke, that is still somewhere in a field along a country highway in OH.
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So maybe the rear joint failed first, back end of the shaft came off the splines and left the building, then the centering yoke came apart when the remaining section swung around and hit something with the joint at an angle sufficient to bind...
 
freedom_in_4low said:
So maybe the rear joint failed first, back end of the shaft came off the splines and left the building, then the centering yoke came apart when the remaining section swung around and hit something with the joint at an angle sufficient to bind...
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That could be possible. The one cap on the axle side that did remain did look to have all its needles and looked greased. Maybe the side thag broke the strap could have been dry on the cap on the DS side.
 
It looks like the incident also took a toll on the axle yoke. It chipped off the u-joint retaining tab so I should replace that. I assume since its a Dana 44 with pinion shims and not a crush sleeve, I can just remove the old and install the new with a new nut and just torque to spec? The axle was rebuilt a year ago so I do not want to tear apart this axle again if I do not have to.
 
XCRN said:
It looks like the incident also took a toll on the axle yoke. It chipped off the u-joint retaining tab so I should replace that. I assume since its a Dana 44 with pinion shims and not a crush sleeve, I can just remove the old and install the new with a new nut and just torque to spec? The axle was rebuilt a year ago so I do not want to tear apart this axle again if I do not have to.
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Yes. I would change the seal while you are there for good measure.
 
Blackjack said:
Yes. I would change the seal while you are there for good measure.
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I guess thats not a bad idea. Its only got 15k miles on seal, but who knows what kind of damage the vibrations may have done. I am worried a bit about the transfer case side, but spinning the yoke it appears to still be rotating true. I might throw a dial gauge on it and see if there is any major runout on the TC yoke.
 
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