jpthing's XJ rear driveshaft setup

[jpthing]

Ya I dunno. What kind o' cable are you thinking of ? like ebrake?

Or maybe tire imbalance?

[Immortal]

Maybe I misunderstood the concept of "vibes" because i get no shakes whatsoever, just a "whirring" noise.

A whirring noise? hmmm.... maybe the gears are nice and tight.... tire slap? Or maybe a u-joint is on its' way out....

[dac]

rubber shield flapping in the wind?  What under there can move?

[JackstandJohnny]

Tom woods u-joints are $20 USD.  To me that's a pretty good deal. I have not been impressed with the longevity of napa u-joints.

I also wanted his opinion on whether u-joints with the grease fitting on the cap needeed to be replaced with the same type for correct balance to be maintained.

i was just at autovalue and ujoints there are 25$.  just wondering what the difference is between the tom woods ones?  what are you expectations for a ujoint too?  i don't really expect much out of them, i break em fairly easily.

[dunl]

I just need to ask....are you "Boardsnow" or "Alpine"?

[WhiteOut]

I just need to ask....are you "Boardsnow" or "Alpine"?

What are you doing on here? Are you so addicted to the site that you lugged a laptop down to your hotel and bought wifi?

[dunl]

It's free, and I figured there might be a part or two that might come up for sale.

[jpthing]

i was just at autovalue and ujoints there are 25$.  just wondering what the difference is between the tom woods ones?  what are you expectations for a ujoint too?  i don't really expect much out of them, i break em fairly easily.

maybe I've been lucky but I've never broke one, really, but I've worn out lots.  I don't usually shop at Auto Value, but at NAPA the have their cheapie, which is greaseable for around $18 or their premium which is not greasable for about $30 (prices from memory). The problem I've had with the cheap ones is that they wear out too fast I think the needles are softer maybe and the premium ones don't do any better since you can't grease them.

So basically the cheap ones are too cheap and the better ones are nipple-less. I have heard non-wheelers say the napa premium are good.

The thing I like about the $20 Tom Woods ujoints is they have the grease fitting on one of the caps(much easier to grease and no worries about proper orientation in a double cardan). There is a spicer one like this too but IIRC it's around $40 locally.


not sure if you were @me but no, I'm not boardsnow or alpine.

[BlackYJ]

maybe I've been lucky but I've never broke one, really, but I've worn out lots.  I don't usually shop at Auto Value, but at NAPA the have their cheapie, which is greaseable for around $18 or their premium which is not greasable for about $30 (prices from memory). The problem I've had with the cheap ones is that they wear out too fast I think the needles are softer maybe and the premium ones don't do any better since you can't grease them.

There is nothing wrong with non-greaseable u-joints.  That is all I have on my rig because I am lazy and don't like greasing u-joints after every run.  Plus the high-end spicer have a very good triple seal that are only about $30 at Pat's

[JackstandJohnny]

the cheap ones just need to be maintained;  but due to freqeunt mclean mud baths and less than frequent maintenence (from your first post) i can see why they wear out.  will the other non sealed units last longer than the cheapies without proper maintenence?

from the sounds of your driveshaft build i thought you were trying to lesser maintenence. i figured a sealed ujoint would suit that need better...... 

[SwampSinger]

Spycer 760 is the ONLY way to go  on that type of axle... D30 & Ruby axles


They are $28 at Pat's (if you have your CJA card) and at DSI


I ran the cheap joints only once and it costs me a set of new axles. U-joint blew...took the ears off the yoke and destroyed my Superior axle outter seal....

Protiture yourself, get extra $$ and buy yourself some Spicers 760.. and stop being cheap.

[SwampSinger]

Ok ...I might not have read the the hole thread.

you might be talking drive shaft u-joints....


None the less...never cheap out on parts... If you wheel with people and break all the time, it sucks for the rest of the group.

[jpthing]

ya we're talkin driveshaft u-joints....the tom woods ujoints are for my tj anyway which has a sye, not my xj which has the stock tj driveshaft setup. Do you guys think the spicers are better than the tom woods "gold seal" type?

I don't really know which ones will last longer, I know the spicers are good, and the tom woods gold ones I have in the tj now lasted about 2 yrs, which seems pretty good to me.

with the ujoints I picked (grease nipple on a cap) and with the driveshaft setup the goal was more 'easier maintenance' than 'less maintenance', in that the xj driveshaft only has two ujoints to grease and 'because I find having the grease fitting on the cap makes greasing a lot easier, you don't have to turn the shaft to get at the fittings as much.

I read a few posts back that someone had thought the "blue goo" was marine grease, when I referred to the blue goo I was talking about the coating on the male splines of the slip shaft.