Tailshaft Bushing Replacement

Hi everybody, I'm a newbie to this forum but I've been on Jeepforum.com for a while. I posted this on the other forum, but nobody over there seemed to know about it. I bent the driveshaft on my '94 2wd XJ (yeah, I know what you're thinking) and it wore out the tailshaft bushing on the transmission. Has anybody here replaced one? Is it labor intensive/expensive/anything like that?

There is an ouput bearing and their is a slip yoke type babbit bearing. If you are talking about the babbit bearing/bushing, it is a pretty easy task. You pull the driveshaft slipyoke out, remove the 3 or 4 bolts holding the tailcone assembly, depending on if it is an NP231 or NP242. Tap the assembly with a deadblow hammer to get it to come off. Once it is off you should be able to see the bearing. Find a socket or bushing driver the right size, and use a hammer to tap the babbit bearing out. The new one can be pressed in using much the same techinique. If you don't want to mess with pressing the old one out and such, just show up at your local automotive machine shop with the replacement bushing and I bet you can get it done for $10 while you wait. Around here the going rate is a cold sixpack on Friday afternoon.

Doing the bigger shaft bearing requires taking the next casting off on some models, but on others you can just use a pair of snap ring pliers to remove the retaining ring and the bearing will come right out.

Either way it isn't a particularly hard or technical job. In a shop with good tools it should be less than an hour of labor.

By the way, remember to replace the output shaft seal while you are at it. You already have it apart and the seal is only a few bucks.

Welcome to .

old_man said:

depending on if it is an NP231 or NP242.

Click to expand...

Since it's a 2wd, I'm guessing neither. :laugh3:

Dang, my eyes are going.

Not sure but the proceedure should be similar IIRR. I'll see what my FSM has to say about the 2wd.

Awesome, thanks for the quick replies. The shop I took it to (to look for my taillight short) looked at it and said it requires some sort of puller, but said it wasn't a hard job. I just wanted to make sure what I was going to be getting into on Thanksgiving break. Also, anything from the FSM would be helpful (isn't the FSM available online somehow?) Thanks y'all.

What I read, said the whole tail cone has to be replaced. I´ve done a similiar job on related units. I notched the bushing, once with a hacksaw and another time with an air grinder, then bent the bushing inwords with a punch. I also pressed one out on a 241 tranfer case, thought that sucker was gonna blow, before it finally moved.