Joined the Front Drive Shaft Club Today

harsh20 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:59 pm

It popped on the way home tonight. Metal on Metal grind. I had to replace some parts on my daughters car so I couldn't do inspections until after that. I just took it out 10 minutes ago. The rear boot was gone. 155000+ on the clock. More snow and ice this weekend. Joy!

ZERO6 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:49 am

Well that sucks, at least I caught mine before that, but we have no snow!
Trade ya!!!

tommudd · **Posted:** Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:58 am

Everyone needs to check theirs every few thousand miles.
Seems like most make it to 120,000-140,000 miles , some sooner but not many

tjkoen01 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 04, 2010 11:30 am

just replaced mine last week too, 130k on the ticker

stumpjumper_09 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 04, 2010 7:43 pm

did mine at 49k because of a stick.

doing evil libbys on monday his is at 17?,000

kskj · **Posted:** Thu Feb 04, 2010 11:09 pm

My daughters 02 just went out last week at 122,000 miles.

XJMA · **Posted:** Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:45 pm

what happens to the front DS?? Does the boot pop off? Can't you lube it? What part fails?

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:50 pm

The rear boot collects dirt, grime etc and over time gets brittle and falls apart!
Not much you can do except maybe clean it once in a while,but anything you put on it would allow more dirt to stick and collect in the folds of the boot.
Not a big deal, easy to R&R

Silverdiesel · **Posted:** Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:08 pm

Does removal mean removing those tiny bolts in a circle right in front of the front boot and right behind the rear boot??

AND.......

Is the shaft on CRD the same part # as gasser???

Roland

Silverdiesel · **Posted:** Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:14 pm

Well with researching I already answered my first question.......

kskj · **Posted:** Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:39 pm

Gassers are a different part#

AZKJ · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2010 12:07 am

I just joined the club yesterday... 61,000 on the speedo. My KJ has seen it's share of trails. I don't know how long the boot has been gone. No noises from the shaft yet, just the boot missing.

Does anybody know if you have to buy the whole assembly, or can you just buy and replace the boots?

Thanks

stumpjumper_09 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:28 am

Boots are not available

AZKJ · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2010 3:34 pm

stumpjumper_09 wrote:

Boots are not available

Thanks for the reply... I just finished my research and found that out.

Dealer wants $560.00 for one, Mopar Parts America wants $414.00 shipped. I found a drive line shop here in Phoenix that will do a new shaft with u-joints for right at $400.00 balanced and installed. I'm gonna go that route. I think it'll be better in the long run and not have to change it out again down the road because of a stupid rubber boot.

stumpjumper_09 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:50 pm

If you go that route make sure they do a double cardon on t-case end and change both yokes. Call tom woods and they will tell you what they do. It works very well on all libertys except mine and one more. :banghead:

XJMA · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2010 12:38 pm

Is the boot on the slip yoke part of the DS?? Or is it a ball in socket CV rather than a double cardan CV?? I have never really looked at it!! On second thought, with IFS, what the hell would you need a CV in the front DS for??? If you have the pinion and tcase output perpindicular, you just need one Ujoint on each end? Oh well.....

Anyways, I'll check the wifes, thanks for the heads up.

And yeah, if you need a new front shaft, go aftermarket. They're WAY beefier. Tom woods has been good to me. I beat the bag out of my DSs and he stands by his work! Luckily on XJs you can run the front shafts in the rear....and there are plenty of XJs in the junk yard. If the distance from Tcase to pinion was close enough on the KJ I bet you could run an XJ shaft in a KJ!! If the yoke isn't correct on either side, you could change them out to XJ style....231=231 and the D30a must have the same yokes as a real D30!

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:40 pm

Before changing the front driveshaft for one with u-joints you need to understand what the different driveshafts are and the one you need.You just can not install one "just because" since vibs/destruction will result unless you get the correct one or modify the t-case/front diff pinion angles to make one work.

Below pics apply to both front and rear apps.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/PR-shaft/index.html

AZKJ · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:04 pm

Okay... I understand about the good possibility of vibrations etc if I use a shaft with u-joints. I really don't know what to be asking a shop when I go talk with them about correct angles etc. Since the KJ doesn't get off road anymore and it's Beth's daily driver, I think I'll just get the OEM shaft from Mopar Parts America, unless one of the experts here can spell out exactly what I need to ask the shop and what I need to tell them what I want.

Thanks

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:40 pm

AZKJ wrote:

Okay... I understand about the good possibility of vibrations etc if I use a shaft with u-joints. I really don't know what to be asking a shop when I go talk with them about correct angles etc. Since the KJ doesn't get off road anymore and it's Beth's daily driver, I think I'll just get the OEM shaft from Mopar Parts America, unless one of the experts here can spell out exactly what I need to ask the shop and what I need to tell them what I want.

Thanks

You have to adjust the front diff pinion angle to use one of the 2 u-joint style driveshafts like in the pics above,and that ain't happening without some modification since it is IFS.Just stick the the OEM style,less headaches.It's a massive pain,I know with my SFA swap,since I now run a CV front driveshaft(2nd pic above) and it's a balance between the proper angle and caster,glad I have manual locking hubs so the front driveshaft does not spin all the time.

XJMA · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:52 pm

Maybe see if tom woods can rebuild yours?? The liberty front shaft should be a simple thing to deal with....no movement between the pinion and the tcase.

Joined the Front Drive Shaft Club Today

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