Driveshaft help with a lifted GW

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Berettaguy
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 5:35 pm

Driveshaft help with a lifted GW

Post by Berettaguy »

Hi folks,

I have an '89 Grand Wagoneer with a 6 inch BJ's lift and a stock 360/727/NP229 drivetrain. A couple of weeks ago I was driving home from the butcher shop, thankfully on a pretty quiet street, and I heard a loud clang and a series of smaller clangs and had no power. I coasted it maybe 40-45 ft into the nearest parking lot, and found my driveshaft lying on the ground. It's the first pic here:

http://imgur.com/a/GkcM4

Uh-oh. :banghead: I had the car towed immediately over to my mechanic’s shop. He brought the rear driveshaft over to the driveshaft shop to be checked out, and they told him the rear shaft was slightly bent and needed to be replaced (to the tune of a few hundred $$$). I'm pretty sure he had to get a new U-joint, and I assume he bought new hardware and straps for it while he was there, but I'll double check next time I see him.

Yesterday I received a call from my mechanic, and he says that the front yoke on the rear driveshaft needs to be replaced, but his usual local suppliers don't have them. I went over to his shop where I picked up the yoke so I can take some measurements. As you can see in the second and third pics in that album, the yoke definitely has some unusual wear on it. Is that part just called a slip yoke or rear transfer case yoke or is there some other special name for it?

I sent an email over to the FSJ email list (those guys rock), and they suggested that the abnormal wear was the result of too steep a driveline angle. Visually that makes sense to me. They also suggested that the solution was to convert to a CV style shaft. Do you guys agree with that? Since I already had a new rear driveshaft made, that’s not too appealing to me. Is there such a thing as a high angle transfer case yoke that has more tolerance? I honestly don’t do any hard core wheeling, but I hate having to replace the same parts over and over again. What do the off-road gurus suggest?

Lastly when searching for stock replacements I ran across a few different part numbers listed from Dana-Spicer.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sdh- ... /overview/
or
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detai ... &ppt=C0362
or maybe this Crown part is right:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/cwa- ... rocess-229

Do you guys know which the correct one for our application is?


Thank you in advance for the advice!

WT91
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Re: Driveshaft help with a lifted GW

Post by WT91 »

I am lifted more than you and have no vibes with a standard style shaft. You most likely need to adjust the rear leaf spring perch angle with shims and/or grinding them off the axle and welding them back on. You are looking for equal and opposite angles at the transfer case and at the pinion. With a 6" lift a CV style rear shaft is not necessary.

Any good driveshaft shop should be able to get that driveshaft yoke. They are relatively common/interchangeable. Unless you are talking about the output yoke on the transfer case.
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Topic author
Berettaguy
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 5:35 pm

Re: Driveshaft help with a lifted GW

Post by Berettaguy »

WT91 wrote:I am lifted more than you and have no vibes with a standard style shaft. You most likely need to adjust the rear leaf spring perch angle with shims and/or grinding them off the axle and welding them back on. You are looking for equal and opposite angles at the transfer case and at the pinion. With a 6" lift a CV style rear shaft is not necessary.

Any good driveshaft shop should be able to get that driveshaft yoke. They are relatively common/interchangeable. Unless you are talking about the output yoke on the transfer case.
Thanks, no CV needed is great to hear. I never noticed driveline vibration before it broke either. However, just about everything on my Jeep rattles or vibrates to some extent!

Yes, I am pretty sure that is the yoke that comes off the back of the case, but I wasn't there when the shop pulled it off. It looks like there is a half melted seal in the middle of it that needs to be replaced too.
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shimniok
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Re: Driveshaft help with a lifted GW

Post by shimniok »

I have a 4" Skyjacker and over the years it seems like I have done more ujoints than expected. Anyhow... yeah I could sweat these yokes are common Spicer parts?! Good luck

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Topic author
Berettaguy
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 5:35 pm

Re: Driveshaft help with a lifted GW

Post by Berettaguy »

Thanks!

Topic author
Berettaguy
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 5:35 pm

Re: Driveshaft help with a lifted GW

Post by Berettaguy »

For those of you who had been following along with my driveshaft saga, after buying a new replacement rear driveshaft and U joint, we discovered that the rear yoke coming out of my NP229 transfer case was too worn out to reuse. It turns out that the rear yoke for that transfer case is no longer manufactured by Spicer or anyone else.

However, I found a fix! Spicer does make a yoke the right length, the correct inner diameter, and with the correct number of splines. However, the outer shaft diameter is considerably thicker than the stock one. With the help of Houston Drivetrain and quite a bit of research, we found a replacement seal of the correct inner and outer diameter that fits in the back of the NP229. The parts you need are Spicer 2-4-4191-1 for the end yoke, Federal 473204 for the new seal, and Spicer 2-70-18x for the beating strap kit. I've been driving for a couple of weeks with it installed with absolutely no problems. I hope this helps someone else keep their rig on the road! :fsj:
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Stuka
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Re: Driveshaft help with a lifted GW

Post by Stuka »

You can actually buy that yoke at many places as it's a fairly common size. Spicer never made those yokes as it's not a spicer case. But glad you found a solution.
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