From the photo it looks like that joint never had any grease during assembly. They should be packed full of grease if they are going to last. Was there ever a dust boot on that joint?

 

The boot probably ripped and the grease leaked out but that does look suspiciously grease free from the picture.

 

If your jeep is lifted, then you will never be able to expect a long life out of your current type of front drive shaft. What you have currently is a Rzeppa CV. These are much like the CVs you would expect to see on the drive axles of most modern 2-wheel drive cars. They work great at low angles but on lifted vehicles they simply cannot handle the increased angles and they will tear themselves apart relatively quickly. The type of shaft that works best in lifted jeeps is a Double Cardan type of shaft, often still called a CV. The double cardan uses universal joints rather than the cage and ball type of joint that you currently have. These can reliably handle much more angle.

To address your concern about the weights, it shouldn't matter what way you put the shaft in. As long as the drive shaft has not been pulled apart and put back together a different way. Rotational orientation of the shaft in relationship to the flanges it attaches to does not matter.

If you are having vibrations AND a squeaking noise, this is almost certainly because something is lacking grease and has worn a bit to the point that things are loose and rattling around.

You can read more about the WK grand cherokee front drive shafts here. http://www.4xshaft.com/wkgrandcherokee.asp

Also, feel free to call us anytime to ask questions. Information is always free.

 

Okay, i'm having a hard time understanding this...our front suspension is independent. The front differential is bolted to the unibody and lifting a vehicle doesnt change the angle between the front differential and center differential, only angle that changes is the front differential to the axles....am i missing something here? Why all this talk of excessive wearing out of stock front driveshafts if you lift the vehicle?

 

Superlift

 

Good point Red. The older Grands (ZJ and WJ) did change the front drive shaft angles when lifted but not the WKs. My theory on why the joints fail on lifted WKs is because larger tires are usually installed and that adds more stress to the entire drive line including the joints which are the weak link, so to speak.

 

The distance has to change right? You are adding height which effects the length of the drive shaft correct?
CV shafts have a limited amount of slip built into them. Stretching them to far will cause failure.

 

When you lift a WK for sure the angles of the front axle shafts change because the diff housing is higher relative to the pavement. However the transfer case/front driveshaft/front diff alignment really should not change since there should be no or little movement between them unless the front diff bushings are bad (common prob after 85-90k miles).
On the WK the front diff and transfer case are bolted to the frame unlike the ZJ/WJ where the t case is bolted to the frame but the front live axle of course cycles up and down with the suspension. I could see this more with the rear driveshaft since it has to cope with the cycling up and down of the rear axle.
Thoughts?

 

If you have the superlift kit, you lower the front differential.

 

I understand the superlift lowers the differential, but honestly, if you do a statistical analysis, majority of lifts are 2" or 3" suspension lifts...there are really not that many WKs with relocated front diffs.

For a manufacturer of driveshafts to group ALL lifts into the "this will destroy your front driveshaft" is either ignorant, or even worse, purposely lying.

 

Seeing as how the ChryCo engineers didn't anticipate the Superlift diff drop I guess, they may have not designed the front driveshaft to allow for that change. But for the more typical 2" WK lifts, I'm guessing that its not a problem due to the lift, but by the time people start lifting these vehicles some of them have enough mileage that the joints in the shafts are starting to wear out anyway

BTW, we just bought a '17 Wrangler and it has the same crappy staked u joints. What a lousy design.

 

Following this thread....

I'm still running a stock FDS with my modded OME and the stock shaft itself has 190k on it, I had the transfer case side rebuilt 30k ago but it's vibrating alittle so it's prob done. A OEM new FDS is $490, where as a Tom Woods is $459. The only thing I'm concerned about with the TWDS is they're 50/50 on successful WK installs- some work some come back with vibration issues. Carolina driveline discontinued their front shafts for a WK altogether. So I'm wondering what direction you'll go....

 

Following this thread....

A OEM new FDS is $490, where as a Tom Woods is $459. The only thing I'm concerned about with the TWDS is they're 50/50 on successful WK installs- some work some come back with vibration issues. .

It is true that some of the WK shafts come back with vibration issues. I actually just ran the numbers on this. It's much better than I thought. To date we have only had about 3% of the wk front shafts returned for a refund. So it is actually 97/3 on successful installs. Perhaps a bit lower success rate if you factor in the people who may have been disappointed but not enough to return the shaft.

 

My jeep is not lifted, I'm honestly stumped. Brand spanking new drive shaft should not have problems. I installed it correctly. TCase to front differential guide. Vibrations are only getting worse with the sound also. I got my Front Driveshaft from Detroit axle. And they balance and grease their joints before they sell them. (I even opened up both joints to be sure) but anyways because I wasn't able to solve the vibrations fast enough, my cv joint to the TCase got a tear in the boot. Lost all my grease and now have to replace the joint AGAIN. But honestly. This thread can continue, but my engine is now having a misfire and I changed everything. Fixed the issue at first. Then my computer comes back and yells at me that the coil could be bad for cylinder 4, worst case scenario if that's not it. It's my ECM faulting. 241k miles on the jeep. I think it's seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Just ordered a new mopar front driveshaft, $520... ouch. I couldn't justify buying a tom woods serviceable unit as everyone with a successful install seems to have a superlift. I only have an OME lift so an OEM shaft should be suffice- the only reason I'm replacing mine is at 190k she's tired and the last rebuild was 30k ago and I can't see rebuilding a 190k shaft again

 

Shawn I have read that a double cardan shaft would have more vibration without the oem CV. My concern going to the double cardan would be the vibrations effect on the transfer case. In your experience can you speak to this?

 

I would say it COULD have more vibration, not necessarily that it would. In a way though, if it does vibrate more than the factory shaft it is often not because of the shaft itself. Here is an example: Lets say you have a slight amount of slop/play on either your transfer case flange or pinion flange, maybe this is caused by bearing that is getting a bit loose. The stock shaft is pretty light, maybe 15 lbs, the aftermarket shaft is heavier, closer to 23 lbs. So now you've got a heavier shaft hanging off that loose bearing/flange, this will have a greater potential to cause a high speed vibration. More than anything though, the vibration is annoying, not something that is going to destroy your transfer case. Sometimes people will report that a drive shaft vibration ruins their pinion or transfer case bearings. I believe it is possible, but think that most of the time people are mixing up cause and effect. I think a bad bearing is more likely to cause a vibration than a vibration is to cause a bad bearing. However, this is all a bit speculative.

As a general guideline I suggest the following: If your Jeep is lifted, do a double cardan shaft. If it is stock height, run the stock type CV shaft. If you are having problems with stock type shafts wearing out prematurely, switch to a double cardan.

One last thing that I'm not sure I have mentioned yet, if you get a shaft from us and you are unhappy with the results, you have 30 days to return it for a full refund.

 

Interesting...I guess ChryCo went with the CV style because they wanted the absolute lowest level of noise and vibration...but the odd thing is we have a ‘98 ZJ we bought new and it has the single ujoint on the front end of the front shaft and the double cardan on the t case end. It’s the original shaft with approx 180,000 miles and no noise or vibs when driving in full time 4x4. In fact all the u joints on the ZJ are original!

 

I also am having exact same issue. Installed a new front shaft from detroit axle, less than 1 month, the rear cv joints boot torn, and the vibration from it is so loud it overpowers highway noise/engine etc. The headache cause by this thing since day one is almost too much lol