Driveline vibration, 95 XJ AX15 4x4

Seems like I have a bit of driveline vibration on my 95 XJ. 5spd, 4x4. It only really crops up at higher vehicle speed (45+ mph) and only when I'm accelerating. It gets worse the faster I go.


Nothing audible, just some vibration. I don't feel it in the wheel or the gear lever any more than I do in the rest of the vehicle.


After long periods of time driving my front and rear diffs aren't too hot to touch, I put the t case in N and brought the revs up in gears 1-5 with nothing, it doesn't matter if I'm turning when at speed, and I noticed it after replacing my driveshaft U joints. I'm sure I did that job correctly, as the clips are all in their grooves, and the joints are flexible not stiff. Lug nuts are tight. Both front and rear driveshafts are tight without play. Front axle U joints pass visual inspection.

The performance unlimited chart doesn't seem to diagnose my issue http://performanceunlimited.com/documents/vibrationguide.html

Try bolting the drive shaft up 180* at the axle. Is your xj lifted? Tail shaft bushing sloppy?

What brand did you replace with? I've had terrible luck with out of country cheap units. Your straps on the rear axle could be loose or wonky.

Tail shaft is tight, and yoke on the diff is tight.

Today I removed the front driveshaft and drove it, and saw no reduction in vibration.

U joints were replaced first with Driveworks (advance auto house brand,) and the shimmy was there. Then, thinking the cheap shit wasn't working, I bought Moog U joints. Still has the vibration.

Also my T case is dropped an inch, I really don't think it's pinion angle.

And to answer your questions, yes it has a 3" lift on 32s, but again with a dropped t case. Also the u joints were moogs, and I replaced the straps with moog straps. I think I'll rotate that driveshaft tonight.

I recently succeeded in getting rid of a vibration that I thought was driveline but could not pin down. I was thinking I was going to have to go to a SYE to get rid of it. Bearing noise at the front of the engine got me to working on chasing down the source of an aging bearing and I found my problem in the water pump. Replaced that to solve my bearing noise and my driveline vibration went away as well.

Surprised me because I have never had a water pump that didn't leak once the bearings started to go south.

It might be worth your while to take off the belt and give the individual pulleys a whirl. I was not able to get much audio out of the water pump with a wooden dowel. The idler pulley was much more noisy. Only once I got things apart to replace the idler pulley did I find out just how much play I had in the water pump.