Driveshaft rebuild ?

Gotta a quick question about rebuilding my front DS. The centering ball on mine broke and I found the replacement parts but I am wondering if the ball
part seems too damaged to rebuild or if it looks like it will be fine before I order the parts. Here are a few pics.

LOL, wow, you really fubar'ed that thing! Nice work!

The part that looks like a ball is actually supposed to be a post. The ball should be a part of the piece you have in the last picture. It looks like the ball welded itself to the post (there are needle bearings in between, or at least there used to be!). You can kind of see the two pieces in picture 3.

To top it off the parts you need are ~$60 for the centering bearing and $5 for the seal, and you can probably pick up a new driveshaft for less than that (my local u-pull-it charges $15). That would be the route i'd take...


Edit: and the ring that the seal seats on is deformed, so you'll never get it to seal. Stick a fork in it!

Here are some good pictures of what everything is supposed to look like:
http://www.stu-offroad.com/axle/driveshaft/driveshaft-5.htm

I wouldn't go get a JY driveshaft. chances are its going to be FUBAR as well, any shaft I have ever seen in come out of a JY has needed a complete CV rebuild within a month of being run, especially if you have deeper gears than stock.

a new CV and u-joints isn't that expensive when you think about it.

also do yourself a favor and check the splines on your shaft, if there is any slop at all, even a few thousandths of an inch you may want to have that rebuilt as well.

Yeah I just found the info showing the ball should be on the busted part lol. Well I'll try to get it apart and see what the stud looks like. Looks like I might be going to the JY after all. You mention a boot and some show they are greasable but it doesn't look like there has been an grease in there. Do they need to be greased or is it more like a dust boot?

KingCopa said:

Yeah I just found the info showing the ball should be on the busted part lol. Well I'll try to get it apart and see what the stud looks like. Looks like I might be going to the JY after all. You mention a boot and some show they are greasable but it doesn't look like there has been an grease in there. Do they need to be greased or is it more like a dust boot?

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they need grease, if not they go bad real fast. I just had my front CV taken apart and re-greased because it had gotten real dry.

KingCopa said:

Yeah I just found the info showing the ball should be on the busted part lol. Well I'll try to get it apart and see what the stud looks like. Looks like I might be going to the JY after all. You mention a boot and some show they are greasable but it doesn't look like there has been an grease in there. Do they need to be greased or is it more like a dust boot?

Click to expand...

It's not supposed to be filled with grease, but there should definitely be some in there. It looks like yours probably ran out of grease (likely due to a bad seal) and went downhill from there.

I did a little reading on the greaseable ones, but apparently they're not exactly interchangable with the non-greasable ones.

i wouldn't bother trying to rebuild the ball. just buy a whole new assembly. it's such a pain in the ass the extra money is worth not dealing with it.

there was a thread on here not too long ago about rebuilding a ds.

Did that cause any damage? Thats what my centering kit looked like that i bought from NAPA after having it installed for only 4 months, it seized up and literally ripped my transfer case in 2 pieces. i will always make sure that joint is thoroughly greased.

:shocked: WOW I should check on mine today