front drive shaft grenaded...

jereosbou · **Joined:** Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:22 am **Posts:** 97

I have to take pictures later but here are the basics of what happened! I took my Liberty out to show my buddy what rocks are about. I drove through the stock tank about 3 foot deep and front wheels pulled us out on the far bank. All is well as we had simply eased through it. Then we went down to the back marsh, turned and went across a bar of sand and mud. When my front end locked up forcing me to the deeper hole. This caused me to get my right rear tire stuck under the water. My front tires on firm ground. We brought my dads Z71 to pull me out and it couldn't budge me. Next we got the tractor and tried pulling backwards, forwards etc. with no luck. So out with the highlift and ply wood. Finally got it up enough and pulled the Liberty out with truck. Even on dry ground my front wheels were stuck and I was slipping around with my back end . Finally on hard ground, I got them to break free. Once I got home, I noticed my front drive shafts rear CV by the transfercase had grenaded. I dropped the shaft and its bad pieces shot out of the casing. It was burnt up etc. Now with it out along with the transfercase, turns fine and front end isnt bound up. What could have caused this? Jeep has 85 thousand miles on it but I wouldnt think it be that much of a wear on it.....
heres the pics of the stuck....

Edited by DarbyWalters for easier reading

DaveKJ02 · **Posted:** Wed May 16, 2007 9:29 pm

I bet it broke when you first got stuck and you didnt realize it?

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Wed May 16, 2007 9:36 pm

Yep and that is why you were stuck. Your are a bit lucky that the whole front diff didn't explode!

kolesy · **Posted:** Wed May 16, 2007 9:40 pm

Sorry to hear man! BUt them tires are frickin Sweet!!!

jereosbou · **Joined:** Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:22 am **Posts:** 97

dealer quted 499 for shaft..... my boss has a grand cherokee and his front shaft has u joints think ill measure to see if its right leinghth then look for one of those as a replacement any other ideas? anyone have a spare sitting around ?

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed May 16, 2007 11:12 pm

jereosbou wrote:

dealer quted 499 for shaft..... my boss has a grand cherokee and his front shaft has u joints think ill measure to see if its right leinghth then look for one of those as a replacement any other ideas? anyone have a spare sitting around ?

Gonna need alot of modification to make a u-joint yoke work on the dana30a,need to have a custom seal made or make a custom spacer so a regular seal will work.The transfer side is no problem.Read the top middle caption with pic----http://www.jbconversions.com/pages/reviews/showpage.php?m=4wdsu&i=2006.11&p=4----.

spencevans · **Posted:** Thu May 17, 2007 12:31 am

I'm sorry to hear that, but I bet you broke it when you were stuck. I'd be careful wheeling in steams in Texas, as rumor has it the troopers don't like it.

jereosbou · **Joined:** Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:22 am **Posts:** 97

its on my private property ive got 300 acres in llano near the long ranch there.
and my grandmas the judge so i dont think there much torouble with troopers though your right in texas river beds and water ways are off limits to motorized vehicles.
the drive shaft locke dup casuing me to stick but i am wondering what usually causes these to break ill post a pic tonight and youll see how vio;ent a break this was.

tulsa · **Posted:** Thu May 17, 2007 7:58 am

In case anyone needs a translation, stock tank is Texan for cattle pond. I love those wheels! Jeep would be wise to use that design on new Libertys.

chetos · **Posted:** Thu May 17, 2007 10:05 am

spencevans wrote:

I'm sorry to hear that, but I bet you broke it when you were stuck. I'd be careful wheeling in steams in Texas, as rumor has it the troopers don't like it.

FastTRX · **Posted:** Thu May 17, 2007 10:24 am

Finally got to test out that bumper....your KJ is looking real nice! Good luck on getting that fixed and be glad you didn't blow that front diff. I've heard that people aren't too happy when that happens...

steepcreekfreak · **Posted:** Thu May 17, 2007 2:28 pm

I broke my front drive too. I think I tore the boot wheeling down in Wv on a real brushy trail. I had it jam up on me driving, snapped it. Not fun. Jeeps frontt wheels just started locking up on me. BANG,-- BANG,- BANG. Got louder and longer till I was able to stop. Lucky I didn't blow the transfer case or my front diff.

I think I tore the boot on brush and then filled it with muddy water crossing streams in Wv. It blew a few days after I had been fording.

Got it replaced with a used one for 200 bucks. Then I spent 250 on a skid row engine to transfer skid plate.

If I were you I would get a this skid if you do not have one already. Stuff like brush can get stuck up in that space between the engine mounts/crossbars and you transfer case plate real easy.

Plus it protects your engine and tranny oil pans.

I inspect that cv boot now too just like my balljoint and front diff cv boots.

jereosbou · **Joined:** Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:22 am **Posts:** 97

yeah i will check mine when i get new one but i am skidded with all mopar skids...
to the fellow about my bumper it worked well we pulled the hell out of it and didnt hurt it at all... the only thing i will do in the future is quit messing around and get shackles on it. also end of month i will taper ends and move washer bottle.
heres some pics of the front joint that blew[img][img]http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s224/jereosbou/PHOT0005.jpg[/img][/img][img][img]http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s224/jereosbou/PHOT0006.jpg[/img][/img][img][img]http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s224/jereosbou/PHOT0004.jpg[/img][/img]
im still pondering a way to fix drive shaft up with some real u joints but am not in too big a hurry though my buddy wants to go wheeling in july in texas probly long ranch or katemcy..... hope to have it fixed by then but if not then two low and a locker will have to do lol

jason thompson · **Posted:** Thu May 17, 2007 7:50 pm

If you want shaft with U-joints then get a front shaft from any junk yard TJ/YJ but XJ is prefered
have it cut to length or retubed what ever the case
the hard part wil be adapting the ends

Big D · **Joined:** Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:08 pm **Posts:** 349

To me, it looks like the grease escaped from previous damage (bent metal on the casing). After that, with no grease, the thing just decided it was time to let loose.

Neatus · **Posted:** Fri May 18, 2007 2:16 am

Mine went out at 99,000 miles. After plowing through snow banks....expensive fun :lol:

Jeger · **Posted:** Fri May 18, 2007 6:11 am

Didnt the guy that had the black CRD with a "working" 7-up kit modify his front drive shaft? I keep thinking I saw it done somewhere....maybe it was him.

Here:

http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/vie ... c&start=45

RiKMiL wrote:

I took 6 pics and you realy cant tell whats going on. here they are anyway. this one shows how much lower the tie rods come out from under the frame.

This one shown how much of the steering shaft is now visible if you look behind the tire.

Front driveshaft cv.

and rear cv

steepcreekfreak · **Posted:** Fri May 18, 2007 11:17 am

[quote="jereosbou"]yeah i will check mine when i get new one but i am skidded with all mopar skids...

The problem is the mopar skids don't cover that area. Go to http://www.skidplates.com/engine_skid_plates_02_KJ.htm or www.boulderbars.com and check out the mid belly transmissiom skids they offer. The skid row one went on super easy. It underlaps the engine plate and overlaps the tranfer case plate. With forward motion there are no edges to catch. I slide over rocks much easier with less worry and brush and stuff can't get up into my drive shafts.

jereosbou · **Joined:** Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:22 am **Posts:** 97

been thinking about making a belly pan and longarms fornt and rear with a belly pan anyway .... so well see till then illl just check it often.... it lasted 85 thousand miles so that not too bad.

front drive shaft grenaded...

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