Busted axle shaft + other carnage

Went to Uwharrie this weekend... Played on the rocks all day without anything happening and then managed to unseat a tire and grenade my front passenger side inner and outer shaft and u joint in the mud put... not fun.


I couldn't make it up that bank...






my buddy had to anchor to a tree to winch me out... we also set up a snatchblock for a double line pull. I was in pretty deep.


Everything was going fine and then I heard an explosion from underneath the jeep near the passenger side tire... My buddy came back to look and just started laughing


the u-joint exploded, as well as the inner and outer shafts...




not sure if the splines are supposed to look like that... we thought i may have twisted them somehow. are they supposed to look like that?


and of course, the victory pose...

after changing the tire in the mud, we limped off the trail to the nearest gas station and were there until almost 4am removing the inner shaft and getting it drivable. in the process of removing the inner shaft we realized that the passenger side LCA mount on the D30 was bent pretty badly as well...



I'd like to at least get the new mount welded on before I drive home from college next week (7 hours on the hwy with an off center axle and a bent lca mount scares me). unfortunately it's exam week and i don't know of a shop in central NC.

I'm also going to assume that the cheapest solution here is to just get new mounts welded on and then pull an axle shaft from the JY?

dont know if he's still in busines or how far you are away from him, but Jody at WNC Custom Jeeps has a good rep in my book, and knows his stuff.

anyone know who makes a good set of replacement lca axle mounts?

the splines aren't supposed to look like that, and definately dont go driving around without any shafts installed. the only thing that really holds together your wheel bearing is the nut on the end of the shaft. sure, it might hold up to moving it around the driveway, but definitely not highway driving

for the LCA mount, you can find them pretty cheap. 20-30 bucks tops, and having them welded on shouldn't be a problem for any shop really. you dont have to be a specialty offroad shop to install a LCA mount

wishihad1 said:

the splines aren't supposed to look like that, and definately dont go driving around without any shafts installed. the only thing that really holds together your wheel bearing is the nut on the end of the shaft. sure, it might hold up to moving it around the driveway, but definitely not highway driving

for the LCA mount, you can find them pretty cheap. 20-30 bucks tops, and having them welded on shouldn't be a problem for any shop really. you dont have to be a specialty offroad shop to install a LCA mount

Click to expand...

Thanks... Yeah the outer shaft is still technically installed... it's just broken. I removed the inner shaft and stuffed a towel in the tube. wheel bearing is definitely on there (at least it was when i drove it home from the gas station on the hwy)

anyone know what I can take the axle shaft out of at a JY? Obviously a 2000 XJ if I can find one... but shouldn't it be the same for a TJ, WJ or earlier XJ? I can't remember... any help is appreciated

i feel like all ZJs had 297 shafts, and 97+ XJs or any XJ with ABS... is that true for all years though?

All YJ shafts were 297. 95 and up Cherokee's had 297 with or without ABS.

Prior to 95 the only XJ's that had 297's were XJ's with ABS. The non ABS XJ's had the smaller 260 shafts.

Hope that helps.

YJ D30's are disco axles (two piece) and used a 260 joint.

His XJ is a 97 and up. He might as well put in the same or buy an alloy (inner and outer) axle and never have a problem again.

He was very lucky. If you bust a wheel joint like that when you are on the throttle, it can have a nasty tendancy of separating the lower ball joint also. If that happens to you, and you are in the stuff, you are in for a load of fun.

My friend had a 90 YJ and it had the 297 ujoints without ABS and no traces that it ever had ABS. Also had the split disconnect shaft on the passenger side, so it wasn't converted.

The outer stubshafts (that hold the hub together) would work for the XJ guy even if the YJ had a 2 piece passenger side shaft (so 3 pieces including the stubshaft)

And the driver's side shaft would work regardless.