Please Help.. NEW XJ owner needs advice.. Please be patient.

Well I picked up my first Jeep today.. Its a 96 Cherokee Classic with a 3" lift and 31 inch tires.. White with grey interior... Here's my dilema.. When I decellerate/ coast, I have a type of vibration, grinding, crazy noise coming what seems to be the drive train.. I am going to replace the universal joints this weekend and spending some time exploring my new Jeep.... Please cut me a little slack, I've only had the XJ about 6 hours... :dunno:

sounds like your barkin up the right tree.

i'd be willing to bet you have a block or add a leaf in your rear leaf pack, which caused the axle wrap, that caused the blown rear/rear driveshaft u-joint, that causes the vibes!

welcome to the site, you seem to have it more together than a lot of members....

Yup sounds like a u joint to me crawl under there and you'll be able to see witch one it is by moving the drive shafts. Check both front and rear shafts. Also the front one has a double carden joint on the top witch can go bad too but ussually lasts a long time.

Good luck and welcome to the world of fixing the jeep every waking moment.

your on the right track i would know if i heard it at one point on my old jeep i could tell a u joint was going by the sound it made at certain mph (coasting) the noise was always the loudest at 40mph coasting ended up replacing a bad rear yoke on a d35 with 33's on it 3 years before the pinion exploded!

make sure to block the front and back of the tires and toss the trans in neutral, grab the drive shaft and try to twist it watch the joints if you see play there bad! i reccoment doing upper and lower at the same time. make sure (as previously stated) to check the front i had the double cardian go before the lower joint on my last jeep its a fun one to rebuild best take it to a shop but if your feeling adventure st napa sells the parts! autozone will be lost! theres 3 joints on the front shaft plus a centering ball assy...


exploded diagram of general double cardian


made me laugh i got this pic of auto zones web site but they couldnt find the part when i asked them for it!
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.procarcare.com/images/shar/encyclopedia/8852LG08.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.procarcare.com/icarumba/resourcecenter/encyclopedia/icar_resourcecenter_encyclopedia_driveshaft1.asp&usg=__SpERllbibK0wWQOEs9KTxozzF2I=&h=300&w=300&sz=6&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=CyI9-SKjKiI_WM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddouble%2Bcardan%2Bshaft%2Bexploded%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rlz%3D1R1GGGL_en___US344%26hs%3DvQb%26um%3D1

thanks everyone for your help... I have wanted a jeep forever and plan on keeping this one for a longtime.. I don't mind working on things and luckily have a little patience... LOL.. yeh right.. anyway, I'll get back to you guys once I get the u joints change and see what happens....