sye/driveshaft question

swapped in my 44 this weekend and i have some major driveshaft binding so time to order an sye. i have a 231 and my question is with the dana 44 can i still use a front driveshaft off a automatic tranny cherokee and what years will it work if it still does?

yes it has been done. As far as the years I am not sure. I am gonna use a ZJ front driveshaft for mine, but I am at 8in and 231/d44 combo. But I am waiting on the $90 spicer from napa to make my H&T work.

so grand cherokees ran the same length huh? im sitting at about 6.5 to 6 inches of lift right now. does anyone know which years of cherokees may work?

all of the cherokee 4.0L auto tranny used the same driveshaft.

check out this link for some SYE information
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=426483

-Kyle

You will have perfect length so long as you are running an auto as well with your D44. Otherwise a auto front shaft should be lengthened to make up the distance of the shorter manual transmission. Some still run them with a manual, but it is not the 'correct' length.

So a stock front driveshaft out of an auto cherokee will fit perfectly with 6.5" of lift and a SYE kit? I have a build right now. The guy who installed the lift on the cherokee previously wasn't using a SYE or even a TC lowering kit. I don't know how it felt but I bet it wasn't pretty. I have a spare front driveshaft out of my 91 auto cherokee and another one from my 99. So these two driveshafts combined with a SYE will work to meet my driveshaft needs? I had heard that it needed to be an auto ZJ. Also will I need to lengthen the front Drive Shaft with 6.5" of lift? Thanks in advance

coastie124 said:

So a stock front driveshaft out of an auto cherokee will fit perfectly with 6.5" of lift and a SYE kit? I have a build right now. The guy who installed the lift on the cherokee previously wasn't using a SYE or even a TC lowering kit. I don't know how it felt but I bet it wasn't pretty. I have a spare front driveshaft out of my 91 auto cherokee and another one from my 99. So these two driveshafts combined with a SYE will work to meet my driveshaft needs? I had heard that it needed to be an auto ZJ. Also will I need to lengthen the front Drive Shaft with 6.5" of lift? Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

It is NOT as simple as that. You must have a auto as well ( they are longer than a manual ) plus either a D44 or a 8.25 rear axle which have a longer pinion than the D35.

i got a front driveshaft which looks like it will work. i probably wont run it though because the tubing is just not reallly big enough in diameter i feel. but it will work for me to drive to a guy at six states that can build my driveline. after i grow enough balls to do my sye sittin at home.

My XJ is at 6.25" of lift, 4.0L, auto, 231, real SYE, custom front and rear shafts.

Few weekends ago I busted the rear yoke on the D44 while I was on the throttle pretty good, and the driveshaft flopped around a bit and the Ujoint damaged the splines so that I can't extend the shaft anymore. I had two stock XJ auto front shafts with me. Collapsed length was identical to the custom Tom Woods rear shaft!! Not sure about extended, as the Tom Woods won't extend at the moment. AFter puttin on a new yoke, the stock XJ one bolted right up and I wheeled two more days with it. I've been driving around on teh road with it as well, and it works perfectly!! I know the diameter of it isn't as large, but I think it's still plenty strong in most cases. Plus, they're cheap. So if a piece of the driveline is going to fail, I say twist/snap the driveshaft, because there are tons more of them available for under 50 bux at a junkyard near you. Sure beats messing up gears or an axle shaft.


Here is my damaged Tom Woods shaft. You can just barely see where there is some blue that the trunion hit the splines and damaged them. I'm sure I can file it out no problem, but the stock XJ shaft has been working fine....so I have yet to get to it!


Also, an XJ front shaft with a manual is about 2" shorter than the one for the auto, with the same amount of travel. And then the front shaft from a ZJ (which are pretty much all auto) is about 2" longer than the XJauto front shaft. So between these three cheap shafts, I'm sure you'll be able to find one that works for you for a fraction of what a custom shaft costs...and have a few spares as well!

im on the same page as you. carry a couple spares on the trail and and im still down like sixty bucks only with extras!

Gotta carry spares, especially of the parts that yo don't expect will break (like tom woods shafts!). It didn't break...but it's damaged to the point that I didn't want to use it until it got some TLC.

With 4.88s and Q78s and a detroit on stock D30 shafts, those SHOULD be what I'm breaking....however, since I have two sets of spares, I think they know that breaking wouldn't matter....so they dont' break!

Don't under estimate the strength of the smaller tubed front shaft. I have seen both the bigger original rear shaft cut as well and the smaller front tube, ( they were cut to take the yoke fittings from them ) and the smaller front tube must have been close to twice the wall thickness of the larger one. There is a formula they work by and the smaller the tube, the thicker the wall thickness until you get down to solids for a given hp rating. If you have the clearance, bigger is better as less flex and weight.