D30 U Joint diagnosis

1988 XJ with HP D30. Alloy shafts installed maybe 7 years ago.

Trying to diagnose a chirp that seems directly related to wheel speed.

Hubs/Unit bearings feel tight.

Front DS feels fairly tight maybe some very slight play in the slip shaft portion. (I'll pull it out this weekend and see if that eliminates the chirp)

With the jeep on the ground, I can get a very slight bit of play at the u joint by grabing and moving the stub shaft side of the yoke. It is the same on both side which leads me to believe it might be within normal tolerance. BUT I get zero play on my 2014 JKU.

Question is - Should there be ZERO play on the front axle u-joints?

And if it is the U joints. How do I go about identifying the proper size without taking it apart so that I can order the replacements.

You say allow shaft, which leads me to believe aftermarket and I highly doubt they would put anything other than the 760's in those shafts. Easiest thing to do is contact the shaft maker.

Zero play in a u joint, especially if only shaking by hand. Are they greasable? If so, grease it and see if the chirp goes away. If not, make sure you can grease the new ones so you can help them last longer.

Thanks for the reply Dan.

I got a pair of spicer 760 in my Amazon basket. Going to wait until I eliminate the front driveshaft, because visually the u joints look good.

I'll have to get it up on stands and take a closer look while cycling the steering.

The play isn't ANY in and out or side to side. I can just get a very slight play when rotating the shaft. And I do mean VERY slight and the same on both side. Not sure it would even be noticeable if I didn't have my hand on the yokes.

Angry sparrow chirp is usually the centering ball in the cardan joint of the front driveshaft.

When you say slight play, are you talking between the inner and outer shaft, ie one hand on each? Slight play there is a no go. If you're just grabbing the outer shaft, you'll feel some play there from the spider gears

Digger87xj said:

Angry sparrow chirp is usually the centering ball in the cardan joint of the front driveshaft.

Click to expand...

foxwar71 said:

When you say slight play, are you talking between the inner and outer shaft, ie one hand on each? Slight play there is a no go. If you're just grabbing the outer shaft, you'll feel some play there from the spider gears

Click to expand...

This is good advice.

foxwar71 said:

When you say slight play, are you talking between the inner and outer shaft, ie one hand on each? Slight play there is a no go. If you're just grabbing the outer shaft, you'll feel some play there from the spider gears

Click to expand...

Looked at it again, a little closer. The Chirp is gone and can not be duplicated. (Now wondering if he just had something lodged in his brakes)

No rotational play.

What I can get is a slight shift in the joint in line with the trunnion that is in the stub shaft yoke. Almost like the trunnion shifts slightly within the caps.

This is so slight it's not really visible. I can just get a slight "click" sound out of it.

Visually the joint, caps look good and the seals are still there. These are non greasable joints presumably those that came with the Alloy USA shafts.

Although its been several years, there isn't very many miles on these. I really don't want to work on these in this heat, but bad timing given we have a Tahoe trip coming up in 3 weeks.