- Location
- Houston, Tx
So I went up to my buddy's ranch yesterday. On the drive up, the front end felt kind of funny, a new vibration that I'd never felt before.
Got up there, did some light wheeling, noticed at a full lock left turn in 4wd I was getting u-joint noise. Checked it the next am, sure enough, some serious play in the left front axle u-joint. I had a spare shaft from an ABS Cherokee with the tone ring (mine is non-abs), and put it on.
Drove it around to test it after that, heard a loud pop, stopped, the u-joint on the other side (passenger) spit out a cap. Upon inspection, it was full of sand from my last dune trip. Replaced that shaft, again, with a spare from an ABS Cherokee with the tone ring.
The tone ring shafts seemed to not allow the unit bearings to go in easily, but they sucked down by tightening the bolts. The nuts on the axle shaft kept wanting to loosen back up, we figured it had more to do with us using hand tools than anything.
Finally got them tight to the point where I felt good with it (and the cotter pins fit in), and went to leave.
About a mile down the road I feel a weird vibe, pull over, smoke is coming from the lt front axle shaft around the u-joint. At that point, I called AAA and used my 200 mile tow to get the Jeep home. Walked in the door an hour ago.
So, here's what I have
D30 housing is from a 98XJ
Knuckles, brakes, u-joints from an 89XJ without ABS
Shafts from a 98XJ with ABS Tone rings
Is there a fitament issue with the tone rings? My guess was that the tone ring was rubbing the knuckle or unit-bearing and causing the smoke as it ground down. Can I just knock the tone rings off these shafts, or should I go get new u-joints for the old shafts and put them back in?
What else should I be looking at that could cause this issue?
Got up there, did some light wheeling, noticed at a full lock left turn in 4wd I was getting u-joint noise. Checked it the next am, sure enough, some serious play in the left front axle u-joint. I had a spare shaft from an ABS Cherokee with the tone ring (mine is non-abs), and put it on.
Drove it around to test it after that, heard a loud pop, stopped, the u-joint on the other side (passenger) spit out a cap. Upon inspection, it was full of sand from my last dune trip. Replaced that shaft, again, with a spare from an ABS Cherokee with the tone ring.
The tone ring shafts seemed to not allow the unit bearings to go in easily, but they sucked down by tightening the bolts. The nuts on the axle shaft kept wanting to loosen back up, we figured it had more to do with us using hand tools than anything.
Finally got them tight to the point where I felt good with it (and the cotter pins fit in), and went to leave.
About a mile down the road I feel a weird vibe, pull over, smoke is coming from the lt front axle shaft around the u-joint. At that point, I called AAA and used my 200 mile tow to get the Jeep home. Walked in the door an hour ago.
So, here's what I have
D30 housing is from a 98XJ
Knuckles, brakes, u-joints from an 89XJ without ABS
Shafts from a 98XJ with ABS Tone rings
Is there a fitament issue with the tone rings? My guess was that the tone ring was rubbing the knuckle or unit-bearing and causing the smoke as it ground down. Can I just knock the tone rings off these shafts, or should I go get new u-joints for the old shafts and put them back in?
What else should I be looking at that could cause this issue?