How much does a rear driveshaft slip travel?

Hello ,
Quick question. So I installed a flange hack n tap on a 231 mated to an ax15. I never had time to get shafts resized so I put an auto front cherokee DS in the rear and it has worked fine on the road. Yet to do any real wheeling. I don't have a picture with the DS setup I have now, but the DS has extended all the way to where just the tip of the splines are showing(maybe 1/4"). On 3.5" of lift with AAL rear do you think I will ever have enough axle drop so that the driveshaft will separate into two parts and will leave me with a problem on the trail? Does a leaf sprung rear really droop a whole lot?

TIA :cheers:

Jack up rear of jeep by the body. Let the rear suspension completely droop and see where you are at. I am sure you will be fine but I have always had an AW4 XJ so I am not sure how much shorter the AX-15 is.

If you really sit back and look at the geometry from the side of the vehicle. Where both ends of the drive shaft are and where the leafs mount to the "frame" and the axle. When the axle droops out it actually compresses the drive shaft.


Now in your case I would be worried because when off roar the rear sees torque loads lot seen on the road. Under acceleration the pinion lifts. If you were to have a case of some bad axle wrap. Like bouncing the rearend. The pinion might lift so much that it pulls the splines out completely.

I would start looking into finding a front shaft from a zj. I don't have specifics. But do some research on it. They are a few inches longer and some have the same style shaft as xj front shafts.

Good luck.