drive shaft fell off, why? what next?

Coming back from coin operated car wash, where I washed the underside of the car, I was near my house going up a steep hill, when my vehicle slowed down and started making a horrible clanking noise.

It was a narrow street and cars coming the other way were blocked and getting impatient. I got back in the car and tried different gears and found it worked only in part time low, so I went a few blocks to my house in part time low.

When I got there and looked underneith I was shocked to find I was missing my drive shaft from where it connected from the center of the vechile to the rear differential.

That explained why only part time drive was working and why I had no problem driving in part time drive. I was pulling the car only by the front wheels.

I went back to find the drive shaft and found it where I had the problem.

It looked intact except for where it hooked into the rear differential. The U joint had apparantly broken. The two bolt like parts top and bottom that fit into holes in the part that was attached to the rear differential were twisted, as was the grease fitting. The hole in the part of the joint that attached to the rear differential looked a bit ragged to.

I don't know if the bolt like parts twisted after the dirve shaft fell off from
being banged against the vody of the vehcile and the ground or whether this caused the problem.

Any ideas why this happened. How complex will it be to fix it.

Any suggestions as to where to get a replacement.

I had just washed athe underside using high pressure hose at a coin operated
car wash, but find it difficult to believe that would cause the drive shaft to fall off.

How many miles, and have you ever performed routine maintenance (as in GREASE) on the u-joints? More than likely they succombed to age and stress.

I bought it about 6 mos ago used. Probably had 200k miles on it. I don't know how it was maintained. I had assumed it had been since the person I bought it from knew a lot about jeeps, and used it as a daily driver rebuilt the engine and trans and serviced it himself. .

I had only driven it a few thousand miles myself, and was planning a tune up and complete lube.

Shouldn't be too hard to fix. You'll probably have to replace a u-joint, which is a common part at any parts place, and rehang the shaft. You might want to find a local driveline place and have them check the shaft is still straight and balanced. Also, it's a good idea to replace the joints with Spicer or Matco joints as opposed to the 'cheaper' off brands, especially if you offroad.

How was the ujoint connected to the diff yoke? Using the standard straps and bolts or using u-bolts? Two things to keep in mind when seating the u-joint in the yoke is to make sure the caps are inside the small tabs on the yoke, and to use blue locktight on the yoke strap bolts to avoid 'problems' like you've already had!