Pulled front driveshaft and vibration is gone...

[viperbluelx]

Are the yoke ears on the axle end of the driveshaft in line with the yoke ears at the other end of the shaft? It is possible they are out of sync too. Or the driveshaft is dented and unbalanced now. Check both.

That I haven't checked, should the ears line up?

 

[Blaine B.]

Yes they should but obviously there are 2 ways to put the driveshaft together so that it lines up. One way would be unbalanced and the other way would be balanced.

Say for instance that the yoke ears were not lined up, pull it apart and align them. If you still get vibes pull the driveshaft back apart and rotate the yoke 90 degrees so you can get the balancing weights in the correct locations.

 

[Blaine B.]

delete duplicate

 

[Rosco_Dog]

90 degrees would be bad, try 180. Also if the driveshaft wasn't lined up properly, off a spline or two, it wouldn't be driveable the vibes would be terrible.

I've got an '01 and had vibes after a 3" lift from the front and with my 5.5" tnt lift. I've replaced the front driveshaft and the front ouput bearing on my tcase and I'm on my 3rd front axle. My second axle was a CAD, I'm thinking of going back to that style for comfort.

 

[Blaine B.]

Right that is what I meant.

When I dropped my axle to do some control arm work the slip yoke pulled apart and I just slipped it back on without even thinking. It was a few splines off. The vibes weren't too bad but my ujoints were also in chitty condition. I pulled it off and drove without it for awhile, then I realigned it and replace the ujoints. Luckily I had a picture lying around of the driveshaft so I knew exactly how it was supposed to be put back on and the orientation of the balancing weights!

 

[viperbluelx]

I've never had the slip joint apart and it appeared to have stock U-joints when I got it. I'm thinking the slip joint is wore out though.

 

[viperbluelx]

I just checked my castor and it's at 7.

 

[viperbluelx]

I moved the camber to 5* and the angles look better, now it's time to drive it.

 

[viperbluelx]

Well that didn't help a bit either. I guess it's off to the driveline shop.

 

[viperbluelx]

Driveshaft is shot, slip joint is wore out and the piece between the 2 balljoints needed replaced, $250. I picked up a nice one from a friend for free so we'll give that a shot, it feels perfect too.

 

[Blaine B.]

The centering ball was shot? Odd.

 

[viperbluelx]

Ya, I thought so too, but it had a roughness in it when moving the joints around and the joints were brand new.

 

[Blaine B.]

When I replaced the ujoints in my front driveshaft with 206,000 on it at the time the centering ball was good. I just made sure to clean it really well and then used a scotchbright to shine it up. Then I greased it. Did you forget to install the tiny spring by any chance.

The slip yoke has a TINY bit of play but it doesn't cause any vibrations. I attribute it to some of the nylon coating on the splines chunking off a bit when the driveshaft seperated. Therefore since some of the nylon is missing there is an ever so slight gap. Either way it's fine, heh.

 

[viperbluelx]

I greased it and the spring is in there. The play in my slip yoke is pretty bad, the new(used) shaft I got from my buddy had no freeplay at all.

 

[viperbluelx]

I installed the spare front driveshaft yesterday and while the vibrations are much less than they were there is still more vibration with the front driveshaft installed than there is with it removed. I'm wondering if the 1" TC drop is causing the front angles to be off since I have a low pinion Dana 30? Has anyone been able to run a 3" lift with no TC drop or SYE and still be fairly vibration free?

 

[jonzer12]

I am in the same boat, I have a 4" lift. I just did the yoke style hack and tap and put a front shaft in the rear. My vibes now got cut in half it is obvious now that the remaining vibes are coming from the front. Is it ok to run without a front shaft, it is not responsible for oiling in the transfercase? I have a 2000 with a low pinion 30. My front pinion angle is 10 degrees off where it is supposed to be. Who sells cheap adjustable uppers?

 

[Begster]

No problems on taking the front shaft off, it doesn't oil the case.

 

[Gojeep]

I am in the same boat, I have a 4" lift. I just did the yoke style hack and tap and put a front shaft in the rear. My vibes now got cut in half it is obvious now that the remaining vibes are coming from the front. Is it ok to run without a front shaft, it is not responsible for oiling in the transfercase? I have a 2000 with a low pinion 30. My front pinion angle is 10 degrees off where it is supposed to be. Who sells cheap adjustable uppers?

Can run the next 10 years without a front shaft with no problems.
Why dont you shim the lower arms to adjust caster like the factory made it for?
http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoAlignment.htm

 

[dgrigorenko]

The centering ball was shot? Odd.

i have worn out the centering ball on the double cardan section of the shaft... i was able to pick up just that peice for pretty cheap though. i am also on my third front driveshaft now due to the slip splines going out... hopefully this will be the last time i will do that becuase i did the knuckle cut and rotate, so i now have perfect pinion angle. which was a surprisingly easy thing to do; just time consuming. my reccomendation to the OP is to be on the lookout for a HPD30... if you come across one on the cheap (which shouldnt be too hard).

 

[builder]

He says he has a 3" lift, 16" lca's eye to eye and stock length uppers should put him exactly where he needs to be.