front drive shaft vibes

okay, i installed 4.56's in my D35 and D30 with 32's. i installed the D35 drove couple hundred miles and everything is good with the back. once i installed the front gears and started driving again, soon as i got on the freeway, at around 60mph i get some serious vibrations. the only thing i have changed is the gears, and made a custom tie rod, but already got an alignment so thats taken care of. i took the front drive shaft off, went back on the freeway, vibes completely gone. these are the things im thinking of. 1) drive shaft is unbalanced, but it was only on jack stands for about a week, and the driveshaft wasn't really touched. 2) since i have a 3/4 inch transfer case drop the front driveshaft angles are not too good, but it never used to vibrate before. any ideas, any thoughts, anyone ever had this problem.

The vibes are magnified by the lower gears. You have a bad slip joint. grag ahold of it and see if there is movement. I had the same problem. The took out the slip yoke stub and put a new on in vibs. gone.

when you refer to replacing the slip yoke stub, are you refering to replacing the whole slip yoke. such as this one. i have a 2001 XJ with the np231. i did notice that there is play between the shaft and the yoke, where as my brothers jeep doesn't have any. any more specifics on exactly what to replace would be much appreciated. thanks.

http://www.rubiconexpress.com/images/RE1822.jpg

On the frt shaft you have the slip yoke that attaches to the diff. yoke and the male part welded to the shaft. A driveline shop can take out the male portion and install a new one along with a new female slip yoke. I just had it done to my frt shaft for 110.00

I have fixed a few too that had vibes caused by the slip yoke as well. Also who did the alignment? Unless you did it yourself I can bet the caster was not changed which can cuase it as well. They reason why the vibes appear now is that each uni can only run at steep angles at so many revs. If you increase the revs and are near that limit, you will get vibes from exceeding the angle/rev limit.

alright, i took it to canon engineering in north hollywood, and they also agree that there is too much play between the slip yoke and the shaft. it appears the seal went bad, allowing dirt into the grease and slowly grinded down the stub. they wanted $230 to fix that old shaft. so im just going to buy a new one. which is better, RE or TW. Re would be $30 cheaper, any differences, is the tom woods worth the difference? thanks

Why not pick one up from the wreakers off a low mileage late model one?

something as critical as a drivehaft is not something i want to go cheap on. i dont mind paying for a good driveshaft, the question is which one is better. i also dont want to go out and spend $500.

I just picked up a new premium shaft from Tom Wood for 299.00. This will have his new ujoints as well. Not bad for piece of mind.

I just had a local shop build a nice Rear CV shaft for me. $242 after taxes, and it is beautiful. Plus, if you buy local, you can go to them if you have problems...try getting Tom Woods to help you out.

i already ordered the shaft, it should come in tomorrow. and ill install it fri and let you guys know what happens, and the quality factor. thanks for all who gave their input.

if the slip is bad is it something you can replace/fix yourself or does it need to be taken to a DS shop?

little red cheroke said:

if the slip is bad is it something you can replace/fix yourself or does it need to be taken to a DS shop?

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Have to go to a driveshaft place as the slip yoke has to be cut out of the driveshaft and new one welded in and the whole driveshaft re-balanced.