Font Drive Shaft To transfer case Play

[ab_slack]

I have some asymmetrical play on my front drive shaft by the transfer case. See the video. If I understand correctly under the boot is the slip yoke that slides into the transfer case. Or is the slip yoke part of the shaft assembly?

In one axis it has movement, if I rotate 90 degrees there is none. Is that too much movement? Seems like quite a bit to me. I am currently pulling the u-joints to see their condition and if one may be binding explaining why no movement in the other direction

Video here http://youtu.be/FXZZDP4lx8c

Any suggestions on this would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Spott]

That looks bad. It looks like the splines on the output shaft of the TC or the splines on the driveshaft (or both) are badly worn. You should unhook the front U-Joint, pull the shaft out of the case, and inspect that slip joint.

Spott

 

[adsm08]

That does look bad. It's probably a bad u-joint. I'd pull the shaft, inspect the splines and u-joints. I bet you will find that the u-joint is bad.

 

[ab_slack]

Thanks for the input.

Yep, the U-joint in video was frozen in the one axis causing it to bind one way.

With the shaft disconnected at the other end, the play is the same all around.

Haven't looked at the wear on the splines yet, but there is no question the play is there.

If it isn't the spines, then I guess that basically would leave the T-case output bearing?

Assuming that it isn't a bearing, with that play am I basically going to have to replace the shaft, or at least the shaft end? And possibly deal with the receiver in the transfer case too?

Or might I get away with changing out u-joints. I got a feeling it isn't gonna be that simple.

 

[Andy D]

Dont expect that to pull you out of any snow banks. Holy Cow ! I have mismatched tires front to back, so 4 wd, is used only in slippery stuff at low speed. And gently, very gently, so as not to stress a very original looking front end. There is a good deal of droop in the chain of the 1354 too. That said, I drove the Rat 150 miles on the front end in low range. It took about 4-5 hrs on 2 lane state highways. That is more low range than most 4 wheel drives do in a life time. The Rat had (1) 27k showing. and was 18 yrs old at the time.

 

[adsm08]

I think it will probably be OK with just u-joints. Those slip yokes can have a lot of slop to them.

 

[FritzTKatt]

Why not inspect the slip yoke too while you're at it? The clamps on the boot can be tricky to get off (needlenose/small flat tip), but can be reused (crimp with some dykes). Or replaced with hose clamps.

Wouldn't hurt to put new grease in there.

 

[ab_slack]

As a practical matter, if it was anything beyond a u-joint there wasn't much I was going to do today. Since adsm08 felt it probably be okay I changed both u-joints on the shaft and re-assembled.

I did take a look at the slip yoke, but I couldn't really tell much since I am a novice at this. First time I changed u-joints in fact. I've attached pictures of the splines below if any wish to comment.

For now I just cleaned and re-lubed the slip yoke after changing the u-joints and re-assembled everything.

After getting it back together, gave it a run with the hubs locked. Seems to be running fairly smooth. Pretty much like it was 2 weeks ago after I fixed the right side shaft phasing. It picks up some vibration around 55 but it was doing that 2 weeks ago as well. So the front shaft u-joint appears to be the source of the vibe it picked up last week.

I've got all the front end driveline u-joints replaced now except for the one near the diff on the right side shaft. That was what I originally was going to work on today but maybe next weekend now. Given the shape of the rest of them, especially after seeing these on the shaft today I definitely want to get it swapped out too.

Thanks all for the help. I consider this one resolved.