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Canniblize front drive shaft to fix the rear CV shaft?

4K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  never monday 
#1 ·
So this is my 2nd issue with my TW drive shaft:mad:, 1st was 2 U joints going bad after 1000 miles, which he blamed on twisted splines.

So now, again with less than 1000 miles since the rebuild, the issue is something with the centering ball. Under load there is a vibration, and with the rear on jack stands, wheels spinning, and someone applying the brakes. I can hear the noise coming from the CV joint. I can also change the noise a little by pushing or pulling the shaft while its turning. The U joints appear to be fine.

So my questions are,

Can I cannibalize the CV joint on my front shaft to temp fix the rear? The part number a Tech from Tom Woods gave me matched the Spicer part number for the ball centering kit on the front Drive shaft.

A Rubicon's front drive shaft is not the same as TJs, correct? A friend has one of those sitting in his shop, and an old CV shaft which I will hopefully check out.

Any thoughs on what would cause this? Could a bad centering ball be the cause of the bad U joints?

Any help is appriciated, as I have an exam at 9am monday 150miles away. So not enough time to ship it back to UT and wait 2 weeks. Hopefully I can reach someone at TW's shop tomorrow.

Front wheel drive is not an option due to an Aussie locker up there.
 
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#6 · (Edited)
So I just droped the jeep off for gears and an ARB in the rear. Originaly though the pinion bearing was bad and schduled the gears, so I went ahead with the gears anyways.

The guy installing the gears said he thinks its the U joints, and I need the 10* offset joints. When I looked at the joints they all looked fine so I dont know anymore:confused: I figured with the added wheel base of the LJ I wouldn't have a problem and my pinion is only at 17*:confused: Maybe the flat belly is causing the problem, raised the TC up 2.5" and the motor up 1".

So I will be back on the phone with TWs shop to discuss this with them.

While at the shop the guy installing the gears said I should be able to use the front CV joint in the rear, but some were a little longer than those found in Tom Woods drive shaft.

Update:
So I just spoke with a tech at TWs shop, big thanks for working the day after Thanksgiving:wave: He said the 10* joints, AKA super flex joints, are not good to use at highway speeds, or in a double cardian joint. He also dosent think the angle is the problem, but I have to wait to get an angle of the TC to confirm that.
 
#7 ·
Care has to be taken when installing the TW DC driveshaft.
The DS cannot be allowed to fully droop (unsupported) once it is attached to the tcase. (I.E. before the differential end is attached)
Letting the DS fully droop can damage the centering ball assembly.
 
#8 ·
Good info which is not commonly seen posted on here. I was aware of this though and made sure both U joints were seated before I started puting in bolts, and I did not let it hang from either end. Only time it would have seen any forces like this is from me moving the joint around by hand before I installed it, which I hope its not that delicate.

Sorry bout my crappy spelling, this comp dosent have spell check in firefox and we all know engineers can't spell any better than a businuess major can do math:laugh:.
 
#9 ·
First off you don't have a CV shaft, and it's not debateable. you have a double cardin. second if you know of a place in your area that supplies Spicer joint for Big truck , you can get the U-Joints there most likely. after dragging mine TW into be rebalanced, I asked the owner if the had a replacement. He did, the Main difference is these are a BIT weaker because grease fitting is in the X of the joint and not on an end cap.
 
#10 ·
First off you don't have a CV shaft, and it's not debateable. you have a double cardin.
A double-cardan cv shaft IS a constant-velocity joint. The two u-joints together on one end cancel out the "speed-up then slow-down" action of each u-joint, allowing a constant velocity of the driveshaft. ( At least as I understand it.)

:wave:
 
#12 ·
technicality you are correct. But us non engineering types in the off road world of dumb *** rednecks call a double cardan joint a CV joint because it's commonly accepted and easier to say

EDIT
Someone along the way could have named it a cockroach joint and we'd accept it. Why, because the off road shops we deal with understand the term. And communication between parties is key to a successful outcome.
 
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