think i broke u joint(s)

I went wheeling today and about 3/4 of the way home i notice a popping noise that was consistent. Then it got really bad when i took a left turn. I can feel the clicking/popping noise through the floor board. Since it was dark im not sure which one it is. At first i thought it might have been the left one but it also felt like it was the one on the drive shaft. How do you check them? I've never done these before but it seems pretty simple. If its the axle shaft joints the whole hub has to be removed right? How serious is this and How long can i drive like this? I wont beable to start working on them until this weekend. Also i dont think it is my track bar(stock), i just tightened it at the axle mount. any info or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

99 XJ 2-3" with 31 auto, stock sway bar

if its a real lound noise u might have popped a cap. if so u should be able to see it with a flash light. if no real visable signs stick a pry bar in there between the top of the lower ball joint and the axel trunion. pry up and down look for movement. then roate the wheel and check the other end. only real way to check if its siezed is to pull the wheel and pop the tie rod off the knuckle and move the hub back and fourth with ur hand u will feel if it binds.

you think it'd be ok to drive like that for a week?

i just did it on my xj wheeling last weekend. and no if you blew a u joint between the axel shaft and the hub then you will not be able to drive it safely. the ears on the end of the axle shaft and the ears on the end of the hub will knock into each other. i had to drive mine out of the trail to fix, and i broke the ears off. i endend up having to replace the hub and the axle shaft along with a new u joint, so dont drive it. if it is the u joint and you have to replace it, its easy, but you may need special sockets. on mine i have two 8mm 12 pt bolts on the calipers, and the hub was held on with three 13mm 12pt bolts. other than the 12 pt sockets, it only took me 30 minutes to swap everythin in and out.

p.s. if you do need to drive it, pull the axle shaft out, and make a strong air tight plug for the axle tube, then put the hub back on and just run it without 4wd and with out an axle shaft. its not along term fix but it was able to get me from the trail back to my shop to fix it.

well shit i need atleast drive it to my mom's where all my tools are at. my apartment is about 5 miles away...

if it is the front ds, just take the whole ds out. Its okay to drive without the front one. If it is an axle joint bad you have a real risk of breaking the yoke on the shaft if you drive it that way.

xjchappyxj said:

p.s. if you do need to drive it, pull the axle shaft out, and make a strong air tight plug for the axle tube, then put the hub back on and just run it without 4wd and with out an axle shaft. its not along term fix but it was able to get me from the trail back to my shop to fix it.

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Driving with no axle shaft at all will destroy your hub. If you can't fix the u-joint right away, remove the inner axle shaft and drive with just the stub shaft still in the hub to retain the preload on your unit bearing.

They will pop, if the roller bearings in the cap are eaten up (or mostly gone). The "X" in the center of the U joint flops around inside the bearing cap. Gets worse around a corner. I've driven them that way for awhile, just look and make sure it hasn't chewed through the bearing cap into the axle stub (yoke). It can eventually cause the inner axcle seals to fail, from the axle gyrsting mor ethan normal. Nothing to panic about, pretty standard stuff.
If you ever do drive it without a front axle, seperate the stub shaft and bolt it back into the hub. The only thing holding the hub together is the stub shaft. The bearings don't come out easy, but they do come out, no retainer or anything, just friction keeping them in there and the two halves of the hub together.
An easy way to check the front axle U-joints is to jam the axle stub, with a bar through the U-joint yoke, then rock the tire back and forth (with the tire off the ground). You can see the play at the bearing cap seal.

so you mean pull the one from the tube and leave the other shaft in the hub? sorry if that sounded weird still trying to learn

i still have to pull the hub right? if i do all that i might as well just replace it. my problem is that i can really do all that in my apartment parking lot. my jeep is parked on an awkward hill is my problem and all my air tools and comp. are being stored at my moms

sjbond67 said:

i still have to pull the hub right? if i do all that i might as well just replace it. my problem is that i can really do all that in my apartment parking lot. my jeep is parked on an awkward hill is my problem and all my air tools and comp. are being stored at my moms

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Yes, you would still have to pull the hub, and it probably makes sense just to fix the axle shaft anyway, since it's such a bear to get the hub off when it's rusted in. On the other hand, if you don't have the joint handy and absolutely must drive the vehicle, you can just put the stub in, because once you've had the hub off once, the next time will be very easy. Just to make it clear, the stub of the shaft doesn't just put the correct load on the bearing, it holds the hub together. It's tightly pressed together, but it will come apart and maybe lose a wheel if you run it without a shaft in. So don't run it more than down the driveway without at least the outer shaft stub in. We don't want you to die before you have a chance to become a :: member!

How safe it is to drive with a bad u-joint really depends on the joint. It really won't hurt much to drive with a worn out one as long as it's not so bad that it actually breaks or comes apart. At that point, the pieces can jam and damage your steering knuckle and the yokes of the axle shaft. You can get underneath and give it a look to see how bad the joints are. Do not drive it at all if the joint is actually broken, or if it's obviously so loose that it could jam at an odd angle. If it's just rattling a little, you're safe at least to drive it to wherever you need to do the work, and probably to use it for a while until you can fix it.

thanks matt. i jumped under the jeep this morning so i could check and see if they were actually broken. they seemed fine so they are probably just worn out. however i noticed a real bad shake/wobble about 20-30 that im pretty sure wasnt there before. is it still a ujoint?? or is it possible the wheel bearings? Im going to take the jeep tonight and skip class to work on it because i cant afford to not have a vehicle with work and college.

hey sjbond67 i have exactly the same problem as you right now. let me know how things worked out for you so i can fix mine this weekend

yea sure

did you just look at them, or did you actually grab and wiggle. a lot of times they look fine, but they are broken inside... wiggle them around (grab the ears on the inner side and wiggle, if that one moves and not the wheel end, they are broken)

Re: think i broke u joint(s) long

minor hijack, i'm trying to do my d30 ujoints, hubs popped off easily even in the relatively salty area i live in, but my bench vise wasn't being very cooperative, so i threw the clips back in the joints and slapped front end together again (preventive maintenance, joints fine, need a bigger vise).

point is, pulling everything apart gave me the opportunity to check everything out up close and personal, gave me a feel on how not to mangle diff seal when r/r shafts, vacuumed out diff tubes, and most importantly, allowed me to wire wheel the daylights of the unit bearing and knuckle.

Then I mixed up some copper anti-sneeze (high heat properties) Boeshield spray (areonautic lube made by Boeing) some mobil 1 gear oil, and slathered this magical concoction between the hubs and knuckle. Maybe overkill, could have used regular anti-seize, but that's me. Also put a big glob of mobil 1 grease on the axle shaft adjacent to that crappy plastic washer, THAT part of shaft actually had enough rust on it that I swear it shrunk by a few thousands when I finished wire-wheeling it clean.

Point is, by tearing everything apart, got some good hands on experience, especially in cleaning/inspecting front hubs separate/y. Makes one appreciate the high cost of Timkens.

if you don't have a vise you've got two ways to get the u-joint caps out of the stub.
One is a hammer and sockets. I've never gotten this to work well.
the other is a ball joint press. I've had good luck with this route, it looks like a big C-Clamp with a hole in the stationary side. You can just press them out, seems much less violent.
If it's 5 miles to your tools I would just drive there, slowly, and hope that it doesn't let loose on the way.
Worst case scenario is that you eat a yoke, if that's the case, pull the inner axle shafts, plug the tubes with a rag and drive it in 2wd until you can get replacements.
I drove on the outers for a week, when my pinion bearings ate themselves.

As for the wobble, it could still be a joint. When they wear out they also tend to bind. You can test that easily enough by jacking up a wheel by the axle, cocking the steering over all the way and rotating the wheel. If it's binding, you'll feel it then, and if it's rattling or squeaking, you'll probably hear it then too.

Keep an eye on tire wear. If you were wheeling hard, you might have done something to the alignment. It's entirely possible to have two things go bad at once, too.

xjchappyxj said:

p.s. if you do need to drive it, pull the axle shaft out, and make a strong air tight plug for the axle tube, then put the hub back on and just run it without 4wd and with out an axle shaft. its not along term fix but it was able to get me from the trail back to my shop to fix it.

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You do NOT want to pull the entire shaft. You need to at least have the outer stub installed and torqued down. Otherwise you will destroy the hub unit bearing and possibly have the wheel come off while driving.