NP231 front driveshaft noise?

Hey guys,

So I recently drove my '96 XJ about 600 miles (on my way to Michigan to do a summer internship with Ford. Am excited.) Anyways, part-way through my trip, I noticed a nasty noise from what sounded like the front end. Its a very squeaky noise, almost like a door hinge that needs oil, and it increases in frequency with vehicle speed, regardless of engine speed. It seems to stop at about 45 MPH, but I think that's mostly because you can't hear it over wind and engine noise at that point. I figured it was best to get to my dad's place in Nebraska since I had planned on spending a bit of time with him and dig into it then. We both agreed that it seemed to be coming from the front passenger side and sounded like a brake pad wear indicator. The rotor on that side did have some nasty grooves in it and I did have a bit of squealing coming from the front brakes whenever I applied them, so we decided to change both front rotors and pads out to the tune of $115. When we did that first side, a small pebble came out from somewhere in the caliper and we thought "Aha! That's what's making the noise!" Unfortunately, when we rotated the tire, the noise was still there. I did a bit of listening around while dad turned the tire back and forth and seemed to narrow it down to somewhere in the T-case/front driveshaft area. I also tried dropping it in 4wd for a bit and didn't really notice any difference. It'd make sense that something in this area would blow out on a long road trip, since the driveshaft and stuff turns with the front wheels and, in retrospect, I probably should've yanked the front driveshaft on a long trip where I didn't need 4wd. Any idea what could be causing this problem? I think tomorrow I'm going to climb under it and yank the driveshaft out so 1. I don't have that annoying squeak and 2. So I don't cause any more unnecessary damage to anything. Any ideas what could be causing this noise? I'll try turning the front driveshaft pinion tomorrow to see if it makes any noise that way. I guess it is also worth noting that my front driveshaft has the crazy double U-joint/CV-joint-whatever setup. I checked the parts diagram for the NP231 and it does have a bearing for the front yoke. Any ideas how difficult this thing is to replace? I'd rather not have to pull and disassemble my whole T-case, but if it needs to be done, well...

If you're lucky its the centering ball or a u-joint on the driveshaft. I would do that first anyway. Pull the shaft out so you can fully inspect everything.

Google "Jeep Angry Sparrows"

It's probably the centering ball in your front driveshaft.

Replace it and be done with it.

There are 2 kinds of replacements: greaseable and non-greaseable

Since I have had extremely long life out of all my factory Spicer non-greaseable joints I tend to use them as replacements. Some prefer the greaseable type, particularly if they are doing a lot of water crossings.

You can do the rebuild yourself or you can take the driveshaft to a driveshaft shop. A driveshaft shop will probably charge about $200 including any rebalancing and painting it. Maybe less if they don't need to rebalance.

The front output shaft bearing requires splitting the transfer case open. It's probably your driveshaft.

Okay, thanks for the input guys. I watched a Youtube video of a guy with a Jeep that had the "Angry Sparrows" and that's definitely the noise. I think I'll just go with greaseable joints. I know how to work a grease gun, I don't mind greasing joints, and I never really did understand why you wouldn't want to be able to grease a U-joint or ball joint. I'll be around a bunch of mechanically-inclined, tool-laden types all summer, so I'm not sweating replacing the joints myself, but if I'm understanding this correctly, once I do replace the joints and front pinion, I'll have to have a driveshaft shop balance everything?

I am not sure where the front pinion came from?

You don't always have to rebalance the shaft. Chances are you won't.

Ooooooo... my mistake. I was referring to that front pinion yoke on the T-case (since that's the one with the centering ball) not the actual front differential yoke.

The centering ball that squeaks so much is between the two u-joints on the fat end of the driveshaft. You can see it here, attached to the inside of the left u-joint, with the small zerk in the center, and the dust boot pushed against the right u-joint.



The ball itself is pressed into the piece



When the ball runs dry, it starts squawking

Yep. Pulled my front driveshaft yesterday. No squeaking from the front T-case pinion (knock on wood.) Double cardan joint is noisy, even just moving it by hand. Looks like it needs rebuilt. Anyone have a lead on who makes greaseable U-joints and stuff? I'll keep watching some more videos on how to rebuild it. Worst case scenario, I'm now renting a room for the summer from a Ford service engineer. I think between the two of us, we can figure it out lol.

I use Spicer 5-153X u-joints on my driveshafts. They have a zerk fitting in the shoulder but you need to buy low-profile fittings to use them, and you need a needle fitting on the grease gun to reach them (put the fittings on the outside trust me). Spicer 5-1310-1X has a grease fitting on one of the end-caps instead, easier to reach but I don't like the idea of it spinning around looking for something to catch on. A lot of guys don't like greasable joints, since the seals are fine for most uses and non-greasables are solid trunion. I run around in snow a lot, water gets drawn in and turns to ice, shreds the seals from the inside, so I like greasables.

Spicer 211355X is the greasable center ball.

http://www.stu-offroad.com/axle/driveshaft/driveshaft-1.htm and http://www.stu-offroad.com/axle/driveshaft/driveshaft-5.htm are pretty good write-ups for first timers. Main thing I do different is replace the grease with my own.

Hey guys, hate to necro this thread, but I'm shopping around for parts to rebuild my front driveshaft now. Already ordered a new centering ball and am looking at U-joints. I keep noticing that the U-joints that seem to be recommended for the double-cardan joint are 1310 "CV-style" joints. Is there any difference between these "CV-style" joints or can I just put in regular ol' 1310 U-joints and call it a day? And if there is a difference, what is it exactly?