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Homemade SYE

J

JJ13

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Longview Washington
I am contemplating chucking up a stock style slip yoke in the lathe and drilling a hole to make my own SYE. Should I also cut some of the output shaft off (like a hack and tap you would buy)? I have a 2000 Cherokee with about 6 inches of lift. My driveshaft allready has a Double Cardan joint. This rig will not see any hardcore offroading (if any). I know this may be a dumb question, but I thought that they must have you cut part of the shaft off on the hack and tap for a reason. I have a 231 transfercase, and if I understood correctly the sealing of the slip yoke isn't a concern on that year.


Thanks in advance.

JJ
 
First,you dont need to drill a hole,you need to fill it!The factory yoke just has a thin washer tapped in there as a seal.
Second,what makes you think you have a DC shaft?
 
You can get the flange that they sell as part of the hack and tap fairly cheep but you need to mod your driveshaft with a slip joint since you eliminating itat the case.
 
yeah I was planning on doing that at the same time. Sounds like I may have to bore out my slip yoke and weld in some steel and then bore it out. If it is just a washer put in for a seal by DC. Rather than buying the yoke for the SYE.
 
"The fact that I paid the driveshaft place to put one in."

hilarious.
If you do this can you do a write up on it? I'm a recent Jeeper (bought it yesterday) but I've already got plans for some ZJ springs and 32's, but I just found out this is an issue I have to adress, but I don't want to lay out the dough for the RE kit.
 
I did precisely what you are describing on my '97 back in 2000, but ran a single cardan joint at my 4" lift height (and later 5.5"). It has worked flawlessly w/ 32" tires, 3.73 gears, locked D35. I left about 1.5" of splined length on the output shaft, and a similar length on the yoke, which reduced the operating angles significantly and eliminated vibrations w/ proper axle shimming. I drilled the end of the yoke for a 3/8" bolt, and tapped the end of the shaft (after cutting) 3/8-16. Slide the yoke into place, fasten w/ bolt & lock washer, install shaft & go. I actually had to drive around in front wheel drive for awhile as I was getting my stock shaft modified w/ a slip joint. This same setup is now getting passed on to a buddy w/ a '96 XJ along w/ all my lift stuff, as my XJ now sits around 8" w/ a AA SYE & Tom Woods shafts, 4.56 gears & 35's, locked D30 & spooled D44. I didn't want the stock T-case shaft to be the weak link at this point, but it was never a problem before.
 
I've thought about doing this as well. I do have a couple of questions.
1) do they make a slip yoke with a bolt on or u-bolt style flange? I don't know how you would attach the driveshaft to the yoke after you bolt the yoke to the output shaft.
2) can you bolt the yoke to the output shaft with the yoke attached to the driveshaft?

Think about this...... when you install the front driveshaft the yokes are already installed in the diff and t case and you bolt the ujoint to the yokes. Will it need to be the same for the rear? There doesn't look like there is any room between the ujoint and the yoke to work, how would you get the bolt tight.......real tight?
 
This has been brought up on a weekly basis and no one has produced a writeup or any pics. I really need to do something, but I'm still not sure what exactly needs to be done. What would I need to do different on an '89.
 
Im thinking not all yokes are created the same as I looked at one the other day thinking about this and the area between the ears was very thick and looked to be cast from the same material as the ears.
 
"t-case mainshaft flange,", sorry aspireing gearhead ,.. novice mechanic here,:anon: can someone enlighten me, is this a square-shaped flange secured by a nut on the transfer case output shaft?:confused: -Also can anyone answer/expand on the earlier comments/questions posted by philsxj
-TIA
 
You mean something like these!!!!!
SYE yokes
 
Well looking at the photos sent by RCP it all seems possible now. I didn't realize that there were yokes available without the entire kit.
My questions were based on using the stock slip yoke and adapting it to a CV, DC shaft.

I realize that this subject is commonly talked about but there doesn't seem to be a firm conculsion on how to do it properly without buying the entire kit.
Thanks for the info RCP
 
RCP Phx,..this is excatly what I had been thinking and trying to find-pictures and fotos for the "mechanically-challenged"(..read slow..) among us is really helpful-I would also wish to thank RCP Phx for his generous assistance
-BILLXJ:)
 
To answer the questions...

1) do they make a slip yoke with a bolt on or u-bolt style flange? I don't know how you would attach the driveshaft to the yoke after you bolt the yoke to the output shaft.
Click to expand...

Apparently they do now based on that linked web page, but I wasn't aware of them when I did mine. I had to remove the U-joint to install the yoke. I bought the Harbor Freight U-joint press and got very good at using it.

2) can you bolt the yoke to the output shaft with the yoke attached to the driveshaft?
Click to expand...

You could try, but I wouldn't recommend it. It would be a major PITA to get an open end wrench in there, I think, and make it as tight as using a ratchet with the driveshaft removed.

I don't see how those yokes are any better than the RE kit, since the price is around the same, IIRC. Does RE offer a non double-cardan yoke? I don't think it is necessarily required to have a DC in the driveline until the lift height gets really big (in my experience, anyway.)
 
Lawn I'm glad you responded . I was woundering how you installed the driveshaft. Pressing the ujoint on everytime would be a big PITA. Not to mention the possibility of knocking the needle bearing out of place while doing it.
I think you're right about the price. Not really saving much trying to avoid buying the kit. It's just to know that there is an alternative method than the run of the mill stuff out there.
 
Well, it wasn't really a big PITA, since once all the bugs were worked out the U-joints actually lasted quite a long time. In the long run though, I don't think I saved much money. The custom drive shaft work was around $200 or so, which isn't much less than the complete RE kit with shaft, IIRC. The key would be to get it to work with a stock shaft from another vehicle, or maybe a front XJ shaft, which is where that previously posted yoke might come in handy.
 
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