Broken driveshaft

Alright, first off, I'm new to the forum. But I'll skip the intro for later.

Finally had a decent breakdown with my jeep today. '92 XJ Laredo, Dana 35, NP231. Basically stock aside from cosmetic things.

I was driving today and like an idiot, I was showing off and broke my rear driveshaft off. Nothing is broken on the t-case. All that happened is the U joint busted out and broke off one of the two parts holding it on the driveshaft. On the diff, the yoke is still in, and the U joint straps are still there too, minus a bolt on each strap. For a minute I thought I was f*****.

I have the NP231, so its only part time. I threw it in 4H and drove off with my head held high. Forward motion was my only goal. I'm gonna be heading out to the junkyard in the morning to try to grab a driveshaft and throw it on. BUT. What I'd like to know is if its going to hurt anything if I wait awhile? This gives me the perfect excuse to splurge and get the SYE and CV Driveshaft I've been wanting to get.

Thanks for any help I can get!

Since a junk yard drive shaft is less than $20, fix it right. I wouldn't be driving my Jeep in front wheel (4wd) except in an emergency, nosiree.



And welcome to the forums. How were your 2 days of summer this year in Minnesota? October 15 is around the corner, so the snow should be flying next week! (I grew up in Iowa and lived in Minnesota for awhile)

I just looked now that im home, and the bolts for the u joint straps are snapped off flush. Replace the yoke? Or what now?

And actually it was a pretty decent summer. One of the top 3 hottest in history. Been pretty warm for this time of year right now too.

Get an extractor and back out the broken stubs and replace it with junkyard shaft and bolts.

There was a bunch of fluid coming out of the t-case where the slip yoke slides in.. is there some sort of a seal I need to replace on the output shaft before I put it all back together? I don't want to refill the t-ca if its just gonna leak out again... or does the slip yoke seal it itself?

With a 92, the seal rides on the outside of the slipshaft. Unless it starts leaking when you put on the new shaft, I wouldn't bother. Running without a rear d/s will tend to blow a fair amount of fluid out, though. You can use a cut-off pop-bottle to seal it.

Driving it without fluid may have stretched the chain - you want to check that. They're pretty inexpensive to replace (all things considered), around 50 bucks iirc.

Had something similar happen in my old 85 XJ 40 miles from town, (luckily) the slip yoke part of the drive shaft broke away from rest of the dirveshaft as it slammed itself free spinning down the road (and slamming the bottom of the jeep pinching gas lines too!), so I was able to put the slip yoke back in place and keep the fluid in the transfer case and drive to a place I could work on it.

If your old drive shaft if DOA you might pop off the slip yoke part and use that to seal the transfer case, however I wouldn't drive it around with FWD only if at all possible.

What happened to me was the axle yoke/mount broke (Dana 35 Axel), the cause was one of the dog ears holding the u-joint in place on the yoke snapped off and that allowed the u-joint cap to slide out causing the whole thing to fail.. (at the time) It turned out to be cheaper get a new Axel yoke form the factory ($12), but a junk yard replacement might be easier to find now.

What I'd do is check the yoke on the axle to be sure it is still in good shape, no missing dogears, and that bolt holes holding the straps down are still usable.

I would replace the u-joint strap (& hold down bolts) because they were probably stretched out of shape when the shaft broke free.

I have had 3 ujoints let go just on my current jeep (learned not to trust any non spicer ujoint). Here are some tips. Don't drive it much in 4 without an sye. You are gonna leak fluid out the back. Limping it home? ok, just put a can/bottle to try and keep some fluid in. I would also check to see if you shattered the tailcone. I did all 3 times. The driveshaft wiping around cracked it just about on all 3 bolts. Simple to take off a junkyard 231. Also if you sheared off a pin in the pinion yoke a solution I found better then trying to get the old one out is to buy ford driveshaft Ubolts and just drill out you current pinion for the slightly larger ubolts instead of the flimsy straps.
They look like this:
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Universal-Driveshaft-U-Bolts,6578.html
and are in the HELP section at most chain parts stores. Easier to replace in a pinch as well since if they break just carry a spare.

So she's starting to sound pretty horrible driving around in front wheel drive. Picked up my junkyard drive shaft, two new u joints, and since I got lucky with a pick and vise grips and got the strap studs to spin out of the yoke.. I got a new strap kit too.

The junkyard shaft came with both u joints and the slip yoke. Both are pretty rusted, so I decided to replace both u joints and throw on my old slip yoke. I would consider myself somewhat knowledgeable, but I have 0 experience with u joints. Wish me luck!

Where in MN are you?

ChiXJeff said:

Where in MN are you?

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Rochester area

If it's starting to sound different, you've probably got other problems starting. Start with the t-case, that's already been suggested.

I'm halfway between Rochester and St. Paul, drop me a PM if you run into a snag.

Got it all put it after cracking two caps, and a couple fits of rage. Then it was vibrating like crazy after 25mph. Pulled it back in, found the issue. On the diff yoke, there is a tab on each side to keep the u joint from sliding too far to either side. Well one was broke off. So I centered it on the yoke and tightened it down as much as possible. Vibration gone, smooth ride @ 65 mph, and a good lesson learned this weekend. Thanks to all that offered advice!

You should replace that yoke... with that tab broken off, you will lose the ujoint cap eventually.

You can also weld an appropriately sized washer into the yoke but I'd only use that for an emergency, really.

kastein said:

You should replace that yoke... with that tab broken off, you will lose the ujoint cap eventually.

You can also weld an appropriately sized washer into the yoke but I'd only use that for an emergency, really.

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This.

I had the same thing happen on my 8.25. Only, I screwed up replacing the yoke, and eventually destroyed the gear set (gave me an excuse to go from 4.10s to 4.56s.) If you've got a problem with replacing u-joints, this is something that I'd suggest you not take on yourself.

Yeah, if it starts vibrating like that again pull over because it will probably be breaking free at any moment.

Not much that hold those dogears/ tabs on once they break it is a major PITA to try to fix them, very hard to weld so I'd swap out axle yoke if it becomes a problem again.

I never had any luck with them once the tabs had a problem. Bright side (for me) is the ford 8.8 I put in a few years ago completely eliminated this weakness in that jeep. So if it ever come to it there are better axle to driveshaft combinations you might be able to use.

I have a rear driveshaft with yoke and newish joints that I'm giving away for the price of postage, but it might not fit your jeep. Do you have the AX15 or the AW4?

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1068005

ChiXJeff said:

This.

I had the same thing happen on my 8.25.

Click to expand...

also happened to me, keep an eye on that cap, check it at least once a week to make sure it's not walking out. Mine decided to let loose on the freeway at 70mph, that was not a fun day.

Also, your T-case started making noise most likely because you were driving it around with no fluid in it. make sure you check the fluid level and re-fill it. The 231 t-case is filled with dexron III ATF fluid.

im also going to say to replace that yoke. i broke a tab off mine once and replaced it. its very easy to replace. easier than u-joints. and never drive around with no rear driveshaft without an SYE.