[Ipe]

This is a serious question. How would you know if your rear OEM drive shaft is failing? Since I lifted the JK I installed a JE Reel 1310 OE up front as I had torn up the boot and figured that was a good a time as any. The rear seemed to be working so I didn't do anything with it.

So, the question is how do I know its going to fail? Is is just gonna go BOOM! on me one day as I simply commute home from work? How will I know failure is imminent? If its going to fail what are the warning signs? Inquiring minds want to know. And seeing as this is my primary commuting vehicle.... Well, you get the idea.

Thanks!

Rob

 

[RotorHead]

In my case:

The rear was damaged on the trail so no indication for that one.

The front, however did have an indication. I started noticing a ratcheting or high speed rattling noise. I could only hear it I was riding next to a curb or a wall on the interstate. I removed the front drive shaft and, wallah, no more noise, so I replaced it.

 

[PhilD]

Grab a hold of the shaft and twist it see if there is any free-play/clunks/clicks/etc. I found that I had a little amount of play in the CV's on mine with just a few hundred miles of use, but there should be not much more/. Obviously do this while you parked and not moving

You can also just pull the shaft out and twist the CV's through their full range, you are looking for any clunks/jerks/etc. The slip joint should be pretty tight with no real play in it.

 

[Guest]

I haven’t had an OEM DS fail but having gone through 2 front and now a rear JE REEL DS all I can suggest is that you don’t ignore weird noises that sound like they are coming from the wheels. In my experience they go boom 2/3 times and the fist front DS took out the t-case at the same time.


To give credit to JE REEL the front DS failures were my fault for having a bad pinion angle. The rear I’m a little pissed about since the angle was 4° and it only had 10,000 miles before the double cardon fell apart.

 

[CONVICT]

You will start to hear a clicking sound. More often than not, if your reversing its louder.

 

[Joneszj]

Bringing back an old thread...

So I've been posting on here about a possible valve train noise, some sort of loud clicking. I climbed under the Jeep the other day and felt around the rear driveshaft where it attaches to the T-Case. I felt grease. Today I was able to climb under the Jeep and check it out some more.

Here is what I found.

You can see little tears all around the boot. And to anyone unfamiliar with the JK or what it should look like, there should be no grease anywhere around this joint.

Ordered a Tom Woods 1310 so I should be back on the trails in no time. Hopefully these pics can help others out that are having clicking noises or driveline vibes or anything like that.

 

[kittisman]

X2 on the grease leak & noise. On my 91 Ramcharger mine made sort of a humming noise that followed road speed.

 

[bonecollector]

Rumor has it anything over 3 in you got a time bomb under there, start saveing your $$$. Its not if, its when it will go.

 

[SoK66]

Not running either stock shaft myself, but noted that AEV suggests the stock rear shaft will do fine on a lifted UL. Issue is with the front smacking the exhaust & side of the trans on automatics. AEV claims the Rzeppa joints are stronger than 1350s, so assuming you've got the pinion angle dialed in no reason to sweat the rear, other than for the obvious reason that it probably can't take a major rock or ledge hit. I'm not sure if Jeep has any maintenance requirement on those joints. First ones I ever dealt with were on VWs back in the day. They'd last forever as long as they were properly lubed and the boots were intact, not torn & leaking, etc. Pretty well tried & true technology.

I've been waiting for some outfit to come up with a stronger set of shafts onto which you could put the stock Rzeppa joints. Read that AEV was working on something like that for the front but haven't heard any news.

 

[jdubb75]

So I've been posting on here about a possible valve train noise, some sort of loud clicking. I climbed under the Jeep the other day and felt around the rear driveshaft where it attaches to the T-Case. I felt grease. Today I was able to climb under the Jeep and check it out some more.

Here is what I found.

You can see little tears all around the boot. And to anyone unfamiliar with the JK or what it should look like, there should be no grease anywhere around this joint.

Ordered a Tom Woods 1310 so I should be back on the trails in no time. Hopefully these pics can help others out that are having clicking noises or driveline vibes or anything like that.

How much lift were you running and about how many miles did it take to get to the condition it's in now?

 

[SDMF]

When it's worn out it will start making a loud ratcheting sound that will go away after a couple minutes.

 

[Joneszj]

How much lift were you running and about how many miles did it take to get to the condition it's in now?

4" of lift, and over 30,000 miles on it with the lift. Since I took that picture, I had driven my Jeep around a couple more days. I just replaced the driveshaft yesterday and all the tears you see in that picture were torn all the way to the shaft. So if the tears in that pic are about 1/2", by the time I got it off they were full 1" tears all the way around.

You can't even imagine how weak that joint was. After I took it off I was comparing both joints and the one thats shot had no resistance to it, the other meanwhile was stiff, just like the CV should be.

And I'm still running the stock front shaft. 4" Superlift, 30,000 miles thereabout.