Ok ladies and gents, I have a mystery. We were out wheeling, (light duty), and I had just turned off onto the main gravel road and BANG! To clarify, I was in 4 low, 5th gear, going 15 mph. When I got out, the front drive shaft had detached itself from the front yoke of the Dana 30, open diff. I should have taken a photo, but I didn't, so I'll try to describe the scene. There is one u-bolt cap still in place on the yoke. The above strap is dangling by one of the bolts that holds it in. The other bolt, the one on the left side of the photo is still in it's place in the yoke, and as I said the strap is dangling by the other bolt. The strap is not broken, the bolts are not broken, so the one side of the strap traveled over the bolt head. The other u-bolt cap is no where to be found. Strapped the driveshaft up out of the way and went to the house. Took the driveshaft out this morning and the u-bolt does not appear to be broken. The yoke, is still on the diff, and it appears to not be broken. The jeep is running fine in 2wd, with no noise from the front axel and the t-case seems to be behaving with no noises. To me something had to bind up to rip the shaft out of the yoke. I fear a blown up front axel or a blown up t-case. I am going to try and check the diff out later, to see what's going on in there. I am supposed to flat tow the Jeep 5 hours back to Memphis tomorrow. Any Ideas??????
Front drive shaft fell out
- Thread starter Jwhutch
- Start date
Ok ladies and gents, I have a mystery. We were out wheeling, (light duty), and I had just turned off onto the main gravel road and BANG! To clarify, I was in 4 low, 5th gear, going 15 mph. When I got out, the front drive shaft had detached itself from the front yoke of the Dana 30, open diff. I should have taken a photo, but I didn't, so I'll try to describe the scene. There is one u-bolt cap still in place on the yoke. The above strap is dangling by one of the bolts that holds it in. The other bolt, the one on the left side of the photo is still in it's place in the yoke, and as I said the strap is dangling by the other bolt. The strap is not broken, the bolts are not broken, so the one side of the strap traveled over the bolt head. The other u-bolt cap is no where to be found. Strapped the driveshaft up out of the way and went to the house. Took the driveshaft out this morning and the u-bolt does not appear to be broken. The yoke, is still on the diff, and it appears to not be broken. The jeep is running fine in 2wd, with no noise from the front axel and the t-case seems to be behaving with no noises. To me something had to bind up to rip the shaft out of the yoke. I fear a blown up front axel or a blown up t-case. I am going to try and check the diff out later, to see what's going on in there. I am supposed to flat tow the Jeep 5 hours back to Memphis tomorrow. Any Ideas??????
Pull the front driveshaft and tow to your heart's content.
That all works provided the info he has given is dead accurate. If it works and drives fine in 2wd then there is nothing wrong in the front diff. Pics of the yoke would help along with pics of the joint left in the end of the front driveshaft.
For this specific point, I think I would just leave the front shaft out while you're towing. One less thing to worry about, and you can continue troubleshooting at your destination.
The bolts stayed and were tight. The strap passed over the bolt but doesn’t seem deformed. Mystery.
DETOUR
TJ Enthusiast
DETOUR
TJ Enthusiast
I posted a reply earlier but don’t see it now. I share your concern about the diff and the t-case. Something caused the drive shat to detach. That something may lie in the missing bearing cap. If not how does that strap shown pass over the head of the bolt, and look like it does. Not going to but looks like I could re use the strap. I looked at the yoke and it looks fine. We did not feel this letting go, so if the t-case or the diff seized up, I would think I would feel that. Also remember I drove home in 2wd about 20 miles
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