Front DS Slop??

kolesy · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:04 pm

So is this normal? I have a bad clunkinish noise coming from the front end at speeds from 40 and up. It is not constant and I can tell it's almost coming form right under my feet. So here is a video of the slop in the front drive shaft. Is this normal or pretty excessive and what do you think the problem is if any? This does not look or sound right??!!

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/f ... rvShft.flv

Also here is another link to another thread about the issue.

http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/vie ... hp?t=25947

Thanks guys!

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:09 pm

No problem,that will happen the more miles you put on,just some slop in the pinion and ring gear,your rear most likely does the same thing,completly normal.Now if you can turn the shaft more than a 1/4 turn then you have a problem.That will not cause any noise at 40mph,now grab the driveshaft itself(not the yoke) and see if it has any slop compared to the end yokes with ignoring the gear slop.

PaU-MWolverine · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:11 pm

I honestly do not have enough knowledge to say if that's bad for sure, but my spider sense tells me that is not a good thing.

BTW, what song/artist was playing in the background? It sounded pretty good.

raceinfan · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:15 pm

I have just about if not the same play as you Kolesy & you are definitly experiacing the same thing as me, just my problem shows up between 60 & 70 only & a pulsating sound on the drivers floor board

kolesy · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:38 pm

Well first off, TJKJ thats good that that is normal but my rear drive shaft has no slop at all in it not even a hair of play. There is no play whatso ever when I grab the front driveshaft itself.

PaU-MWolverine, i forget the song but it is Killswitch Engage's new album, as daylight days! Great frickin CD!!!

Racin fan! We need to figure this out! It is pretty much a pulsating sound as you discribed. I wanna hit UWharrie up at least one more time this year but don't wanna take the pig out there if it is not full up. Don't need it screwed 2.5 hours form home out in the middle of nowhere ya know!

Help Guys!!!

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:59 pm

Yea, thats normal.

The rear will also have alot of play like that. The reason it does not when you grab it is b/c it probably has alittle torque on it since its keeping the jeep from rolling away(unless you keep your ebrake adjusted and use it).

Chock the front wheels and put the tranny in N. It will have slack in it.

psinsyd · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:31 pm

Kolesy,

I haven't watched the video yet, but I'm putting my money on it being the front ds. I'm going through the EXACT same thing right now, where the noise/rotational clunking would start at 40 and above. Pulled the front ds, and the noise/feeling was gone. Local ds shop didn't see anything wrong with it. Put it back on, noise/feeling back again.

My new ds just shipped and I should have it in a couple of days.

Hope this helps!

kolesy · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:59 pm

psinsyd wrote:

Kolesy,

I haven't watched the video yet, but I'm putting my money on it being the front ds. I'm going through the EXACT same thing right now, where the noise/rotational clunking would start at 40 and above. Pulled the front ds, and the noise/feeling was gone. Local ds shop didn't see anything wrong with it. Put it back on, noise/feeling back again.

My new ds just shipped and I should have it in a couple of days.

Hope this helps!

Let me know what happens when you throw the new DS on. Were you missin any weights or anyhting off the old drive shaft?

How can you remove it and still drive it? ie did you just remove it fromt he yolkes and they were still turnin freely? kinda confused on tht part..

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:04 am

You can remove the front drive shaft and still drive the Jeep no problem. It just unbolts.

Dont put it in 4wd though.

wildrussian · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 12:08 pm

What can I say I have exact the same problem. After driving it around though I figured I get more of a pulsating humming noise between 40 and 50 mph. It gets the loudest at 45 mph. I will be taking my driveshaft off this weekend to see if it stops the noise. psinsyd keep us updated when you get the new shaft! kolesy let us now if you might figure something out.

SD-KJ · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 12:53 pm

kolesy wrote:

So is this normal? I have a bad clunkinish noise coming from the front end at speeds from 40 and up. It is not constant and I can tell it's almost coming form right under my feet. So here is a video of the slop in the front drive shaft. Is this normal or pretty excessive and what do you think the problem is if any? This does not look or sound right??!!

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/f ... rvShft.flv

Also here is another link to another thread about the issue.

http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/vie ... hp?t=25947

Thanks guys!

I have the same problems and the same amount of slack in the front drive shaft. I think its normal. I also have a humming noise at low speeds, for me its from 10mp to 30-45mph. I was told through another thread on this board that it most likely is just drive line slack when its in 2WD.

Do a test for me. Find a really flat smooth road and from a rolling start in 2wd shift to 4wd. I bet you that the noise will go away. Then shift back to 2wd the noise should come back almost immediately. Try it and report back...

-Nick

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 1:03 pm

Quote:

Well first off, TJKJ thats good that that is normal but my rear drive shaft has no slop at all in it not even a hair of play. There is no play whatso ever when I grab the front driveshaft itself.

Park on a flat surface,place tranny in nutruel then try it again.With your KJ sitting at any slight angle and in park it will take the "play" out of the rear driveline.Every notice that when you park on a slight hill that when you put your KJ in park and then let off the brake that your KJ still will roll a little forwards or backwards(depending how you parked) then stop? That is the force of gravity taking the slack out of the rear driveline,it will take the slack out of the front drive line to if your in 4wd also.

wildrussian · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 1:09 pm

SD-KJ wrote:

kolesy wrote:

So is this normal? I have a bad clunkinish noise coming from the front end at speeds from 40 and up. It is not constant and I can tell it's almost coming form right under my feet. So here is a video of the slop in the front drive shaft. Is this normal or pretty excessive and what do you think the problem is if any? This does not look or sound right??!!

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/f ... rvShft.flv

Also here is another link to another thread about the issue.

http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/vie ... hp?t=25947

Thanks guys!

I have the same problems and the same amount of slack in the front drive shaft. I think its normal. I also have a humming noise at low speeds, for me its from 10mp to 30-45mph. I was told through another thread on this board that it most likely is just drive line slack when its in 2WD.

Do a test for me. Find a really flat smooth road and from a rolling start in 2wd shift to 4wd. I bet you that the noise will go away. Then shift back to 2wd the noise should come back almost immediately. Try it and report back...

-Nick

I get off in a few hours so I will definetly try it. Will report back this evening.
If the noise does go away does that mean I need a new DS or is it something I have to live with?

SD-KJ · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 1:48 pm

wildrussian wrote:

If the noise does go away does that mean I need a new DS or is it something I have to live with?

I really don't know. look here for some more insight when it was talked about awhile back.

http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/vie ... hp?t=20109

-Nick

psinsyd · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:31 pm

Kolesy,

There are @ 6 bolts at the front and back of the front ds that you remove, and can maneuver the front driveshaft out. Totally fine to drive and will not leak. As JeepJeepster mentioned, just don't put it in 4wd with the front ds out.

The new shaft should be arriving tomorrow and hopefully I will get it in Saturday. I'm just about 100% confident that the front ds is my problem, as the noise/feeling totally went away with the shaft out, and came right back with it back in. Ordered it from worldpartsexpress for @ $358. Local driveshaft shop quoted right around $340 to put new ends on the old one. Corwyyn also let me know about a salvage yard that had two used ones in stock. I will have to get that link.

Wildrussian, I forgot to mention, have you gotten a chance to get an alignment now that you have the lift on? It's been a while since I've had the lift on, but I almost seem to remember a noise associated with it being out of alignment after the lift. Just throwing that out so you don't have to spend a ton of dough on parts you may not need to swap.

I'll keep everyone posted!

psinsyd · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:35 pm

raceinfan wrote:

I have just about if not the same play as you Kolesy & you are definitly experiacing the same thing as me, just my problem shows up between 60 & 70 only & a pulsating sound on the drivers floor board

I don't think you can really tell any play in the front ds when it goes bad, as the local driveshaft shop thought this one was good. I think that the CVs at each end wear enough that they begin to wobble or vibrate at speed when rotating that fast. If you get some free time, pull the front ds and see if the noise is gone. Front driver's side floorboard was where mine was coming from too, right where the front ds is.

MikeJ06 · **Posted:** Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:23 am

I have an 06 with just 14k on it and I have a bit of play in the rear shaft. Took a bit of time to get use to it but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot in the front driveshaft.

wildrussian · **Posted:** Fri Nov 02, 2007 6:45 am

psinsyd wrote:

Wildrussian, I forgot to mention, have you gotten a chance to get an alignment now that you have the lift on? It's been a while since I've had the lift on, but I almost seem to remember a noise associated with it being out of alignment after the lift. Just throwing that out so you don't have to spend a ton of dough on parts you may not need to swap.

I'll keep everyone posted!

I got alignment when I first put the lift on. Dealer did mine and from memory I wanted to say my noise could of started after that but I can't really say for sure been too long ago. I had to take it back because it was pulling to the right more than before. I don't trust them so they could of screwed up my alignment even more. Last week I added another conduit nut to the clevis and the humming got a little louder so I need to get alignment again to see if it will fix it. tjkj also suggested that it could be an alignment so I went ahead and made an appointment for monday at the different shop.

While driving yesterday I went ahead and put it in Part time when the noise started and Im pretty sure the noise was still there so I guess its not the front Drive shaft. I will have plenty of time on saturday to mess around with the Jeep so I will take the conduit nuts off and see it that helps, if not I will go ahead and take the driveshaft off and see if that helps. Will keep you guys posted on my progress this saturday. Wish me luck

I hope its just a silly alignment. I can see that my front wheels are off camber pretty bad. They look like this / \

psinsyd, what kind of noise did you get when yours was out of alignment?

psinsyd · **Posted:** Fri Nov 02, 2007 6:44 pm

wildrussian wrote:

psinsyd wrote:

Wildrussian, I forgot to mention, have you gotten a chance to get an alignment now that you have the lift on? It's been a while since I've had the lift on, but I almost seem to remember a noise associated with it being out of alignment after the lift. Just throwing that out so you don't have to spend a ton of dough on parts you may not need to swap.

I'll keep everyone posted!

I got alignment when I first put the lift on. Dealer did mine and from memory I wanted to say my noise could of started after that but I can't really say for sure been too long ago. I had to take it back because it was pulling to the right more than before. I don't trust them so they could of screwed up my alignment even more. Last week I added another conduit nut to the clevis and the humming got a little louder so I need to get alignment again to see if it will fix it. tjkj also suggested that it could be an alignment so I went ahead and made an appointment for monday at the different shop.

While driving yesterday I went ahead and put it in Part time when the noise started and Im pretty sure the noise was still there so I guess its not the front Drive shaft. I will have plenty of time on saturday to mess around with the Jeep so I will take the conduit nuts off and see it that helps, if not I will go ahead and take the driveshaft off and see if that helps. Will keep you guys posted on my progress this saturday. Wish me luck

I hope its just a silly alignment. I can see that my front wheels are off camber pretty bad. They look like this / \

psinsyd, what kind of noise did you get when yours was out of alignment?

Sounds like a plan, Wildrussian!! Keep us posted on your progress.

The noise I was receiving was somewhat similar to what you are describing. Something like a humming or a rubbing sound. Yeah, make sure the shop definitely checks the toe, camber/caster, alignment, etc. when they work on the truck.

Hopefully that's all it is. Keep us posted!

wildrussian · **Posted:** Mon Nov 05, 2007 1:19 pm

Well here is the update on the humming noise. First of I checked all the fluids, everything but the t-case was good. I added a little to t-case to top it off and test drove it, noise was still there. I jacked the front end and checked the wheel bearings and they seemed to be fine, the wheels felt solid when I moved it up and down and to the side there was no play. Finally I took out the 2 conduit nuts from the front sturt on both sides and drove it, the noise was still there but was not as loud. So I assumed it was trully the alignment so I put the 2 counduit nuts back on each side and drove it again and this time the noise was not as bad as before when I had 2 condiut nuts on. Today during lunch I took it to get it aligned hoping that would fix it. The tech said the alignment was out pretty bad and he fixed it and drove it, didn't say anything about the noise. I drove it back to work and I could still hear it. So Im back to where I started from except this time the noise is not as loud. I did drive it in full time and the noise was still there but it was hard to tell because of the noise that t-case was making. Im out of ideas! Any suggestions?
It has something to do with lifting it somehow because without the counduit nuts the noise is not as bad but I really don't know.

Front DS Slop??

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