Driveshaft Opinions

I need some advice about my rear slip yoke travel in my 97. The driveshaft looks to be a little long.

I was chasing a leak in my 242. Removed the DS to change the rear output seal. When I put the DS back, I noticed only about 3/4" travel at ride height. Don't know why I never noticed before. It's a TW driveshaft that I installed about 8 years ago when I built the Jeep. It has about 4-5" inches of lift with IRO full leafs and a HnT SYE.

The pictures show what it looks like at ride height. There is not much room to compress the DS to remove it. It barely clears the yoke to remove it. I don't have my other XJ's near me, so I can't compare it to the other shafts.

Should I have the DS shortened? There is not much room for compression. I don't know it that is an issue or not. How much does a DS compress in? Or is most of the movement when traveling outward? Advice?

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From memory, the inward should be 1" and the outward 2", maybe 3". At least from IRO instructions. What might have happened is that the measurement initially was taken when the springs were new. So, the springs settled a bit.

Definitely get that addressed. You can cause damage to your t-case yoke or the axle yoke if it tries to compress and bottoms out.

The "wear" marks on the sliding portion suggest that its very close to bottoming out if not already bottoming out. Or maybe those occurred from removing the shaft?

maxbraketorque said:

The "wear" marks on the sliding portion suggest that its very close to bottoming out if not already bottoming out. Or maybe those occurred from removing the shaft?

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It does bottom out when I take it off, so I don't know the extent of how far the wear marks go.

Tom Wood will shorten the driveshaft for a very reasonable fee.

maxbraketorque said:

Tom Wood will shorten the driveshaft for a very reasonable fee.

Click to expand...

TW has always been good to deal with. I've ordered a number of driveshafts from them over the years.

With that being said, I'll just have it done locally, that way I don't have the hassle or expense of shipping.

How much should be showing, ideally? What does some of y'alls driveshafts look like?

I've talked with TW about this a fair amount. As it turns out, rear leaf spring systems are fairly unique in that as the leaf compresses, it moves the wheel backwards, so there is typically little driveshaft compression as the axle is compressed. If your driveshaft has the standard "S" spline length, then it has 3" of range. I guess you'd want the shaft to be near the middle of the range when the vehicle is on the ground with typical load.

That does look close, but if the DS was sized correctly when you initially installed it, it should be OK. Sized correctly meaning taking measurements at full stuff and full droop. As mentioned before, maybe the springs settled some. If there was only a way to easily compress your suspension to the bump stops and see how much clearance you have, if any.