Broken front axle ujoint question?

I took the XJ out today after putting in a rear XJ 44 with detroit and 4.88s as well as a detroit in the HP 30 and 4.88s. im running 285/75/16 maxxis bighorns on moabs. but as it turns out i ended up breaking the passenger side u-joint all to pieces!! not that big of a deal since its been in there since 1992 and it was a 260x not 297x, i guess it was too be expected. i actually think it slung the caps off then broke. anyway..

my question is i took the long side inner shaft out and stuff some plastic bags down in the open tube and duck taped the end closed and then left the stub shaft in tack in the hub and drove home, about 1 hr. away. all was going well until i was about 15mins from home and bang!! i pulled off the road to find NOTHING wrong?? could my front detroit just have popped really loud or should i check for anything else??? i proceeded to drive the jeep on home and then around town some more and no problems?? im baffled?? i also put it in 4 wheel drive at home and the detroit is still working fine???

is this method a "safe" alternative to get home when you break a ujoint or shaft?? (if you don't have spares yet!)

I once had to drive 400 miles on a stub shaft. Yes, it is an acceptable way of getting home.

But I removed my front driveshaft first. Not sure why the Detroit would pop like that.

xjohnnyc said:

I once had to drive 400 miles on a stub shaft. Yes, it is an acceptable way of getting home.

But I removed my front driveshaft first. Not sure why the Detroit would pop like that.

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i thought about removing the front driveshaft, but everything is still going to spin up front even with the front driveshaft removed so i figured i would not gain anything by removing it.

I drove home on it, tore the ears right off and put the bearing back in and drove home

I tore up my ring and pinion once. Took out the inner shafts, put the outers back and drive it about 180 miles back home. Friend of mine took everything apart, replaced the ring and pinion and put it back together. Detroit worked just fine after that, still using it today.

Oh, and replace your U-joints and fully weld the caps in to keep from destroying the U-Joints.

FiFo said:

I tore up my ring and pinion once. Took out the inner shafts, put the outers back and drive it about 180 miles back home. Friend of mine took everything apart, replaced the ring and pinion and put it back together. Detroit worked just fine after that, still using it today.

Oh, and replace your U-joints and fully weld the caps in to keep from destroying the U-Joints.

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thanks for the help guys, i didn't think it was a problem but just wanted to be 100%. as for the shafts im going to go get a set of late model 30 shafts with 297x joints from the local pull a part and definately weld the caps in place.

Tack weld the caps in place. A full bead of weld will completly ruin the shafts as well as burn out all the grease out of the joints. There is also a small plastic washer inside the cap that prevents the needle bearings from gauling the cap. Two or three tacks are all thats needed to hold the caps in place. I ran my HP 30 with my caps tacked like that for over 2 years with no big issues. I would occasionally break a tack weld which was a warning that the joints where about to go or that the shafts where getting warn out. Even with that happening, I just retacked the joint and kept driving. Finally got rid of the HP Dana 30 when the pinion and carrier bearings finally sh*t the bed. Never broke the shafts or blew up a joint...

AARON