Drive Shaft for SYE

Hey fellow XJ'ers, I have no vibes @ 5.5" on a 96 4door, AW4, NP231, D30, 8.25 29 spline axles with 33 bfg mt's and t-case drop. I just purchased a HD SYE anyway and would like to purchase my drive shaft BEFORE the installation. Now, apparently Tom Woods has a way to measure so the shaft can be ordered ahead of time. Has anyone done this? Did it turn out to be the correct length? Are Tom's shafts any good? The grapevine says that they are Chinese shafts and are weak. Any truth? Would you recommend installing the short shaft then measuring joint to joint or should i feel safe pre-ordering the shaft using TW measurements and his driveshaft? How is the service and if you have needed to use warranty, how was the experience?
PORC or TW driveshafts, or any other recommendations for that matter?!:cheers:

Great thanks Brian!

Ok, well my experience with TW is regarding a YJ but I assume it should hold true with an XJ as well....

He uses a longer slip shaft than say PORC...they're slip shaft is about 3.5" while TW has about a 7" slip shaft. Never really seen a downside to this myself, but it does allow for a greater margin of error correction. Also, while every XJ is "unique"...they're never that different unless you modified engine and tranny mounts. Therefore, he can come pretty damn close to the correct size and the longer slip shaft more than makes up for any error.

Now the downside to TW. While TW makes a very clean and well built shaft, both of mine had the same flaw and the same final outcome...the shafts are NOT greasable. The enclosed slipshaft dried out, seized up, and ripped the CV joint apart as well as blowing out the ears on the rear U-joint. Ok, so its rare! How often can that happen (mind you, I only had the shaft for 3 months). So I call TW thinking this is odd and they'll work with me on it....NOPE! Totally denied any responsibility...this has never happened to a shaft of theirs before, no way it could be the shaft. I figure maybe its just a quirk...I get one more (I know...stupid move to buy an item from someone that just screwed you). Second shaft didn't last as long as the first...same failure. I called TW back, they swear this has NEVER happened to one of their shafts before...I say, I just called you about the exact same problem not two months ago on another one of your shafts, how can you say it never happened before....so they put me on hold for 45 minutes and then hung up on me. So I purchased an RE shaft and never had another problem =)

That was my experience with them....now I pity the poor folks that do business with him.

As for the PORC shaft, that's what I have on the XJ now. It's seems good...no problems yet...but it's only been on for a month or so and hasn't seen any offroading yet.

Good luck!

Bummer SanDiegoXJ.

I have the same xj ('96, AW4, NP231, D30, 8.25) and did what you're thinking about. When I received the drive shaft it fit and I have had no problems for 25000 miles....and some of those were rough miles.

My experience with Tom Woods has been entirely favorable.

tim

www.rustysoffroad.com is a great company. and no i don't work for them or know them personally. I was in the process of adding lift, yes i got inchitis, to my xj and wasn't sure what to measure/didn't have the time to measure/etc. what my rear driveshaft need was. I called them, spoke with the owner-Rusty- and told them what lift components i had and they have a standard book of measurements for all lift heights you could imagine. I got a Tom Woods shaft. It works great and is exactly the right size i needed. It took all the guesswork out of the process.

Who cares where something is made as long as it is made of the right materials and meets certain expectations. Tom Woods driveshafts have a great reputation both in competition and among weekend-warriors. They can be purchased anywhere in the world. and the company has alot to lose. THat's generally a good thing to look for when dealing with custom parts manufacturers-reputation for quality and customer dedication. I don't think you'd ever have a problem with them.

SanDiegoXJ said:

He uses a longer slip shaft than say PORC...they're slip shaft is about 3.5" while TW has about a 7" slip shaft.

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Thats not correct for an XJ shaft.His STD yoke is about 3.5",I purchased 2 shafts with the "long travel" yoke(but at extra cost).They are also greasable,were delivered in two days.No problems at all!

Thanks for the help, trials and tribulations. :wave1:

Spoke to Tom just now:callme: and felt quite comfortable after speaking with him, so i ordered the driveshaft.

Thanks for the help.