front drive shaft is dead!

jeffc · Post by **jeffc** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:53 am

hey i know this is an old topic but what are then new front drive shafts like that guys here have made? i killed mine the weekend....and i was only driving around slowly at the sand dunes for a short time when it sounded like a bomb went off under my truck and there was grease every where. anyway do they put a fixed yoke on the t-case and make the shaft a cv shaft? i called tom woods but there wasn't any one there that could help me....they said i had to call back when someone that knew s-10's was working. i also called a local driveline shop and the guys there didn't understand why in the world you would want a new front droveshaft. theyjust said i need to grind the stops out so it won't bind? i really don't want anything to do with the putting stock parts back on and i'm not sure about letting so shop grind on my truck. i like the idea of giving somone my credit card number and having a drive shaft show up in the mail that'll bolt on and last a long time. any info you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
jeff

jeggers · Post by **jeggers** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 1:46 pm

sorry to hear that jeff,sorry i cant help you.

but was it the lift that did it in or was it the driveing?

jeffc · Post by **jeffc** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 2:12 pm

well i got hold of tom woods and they are sending me a new drive shaft. $359 plus a $100 core charge for the female end of the spline shaft that slips onto the transfer case. they said thats all they want sent back to them...i guess everything from there on down to the front diff is new. i think it failed for 2 reasons. the first was a stupid design from the get go and the second was becasue the lift very slightly changed the angle of the shaft....if it would have had a normal u joint from the factory instead of the cv joint it would have easily been able to handle the change in the angle and it never would have failed. i was so nice to my truck.....we're talking driving about 10 mph out to the beach on lake michigan. i had to go slow because i had a 3 wheeler, chairs, and coolers in the back of the truck. i've only used the 4wd on the truck easily less then 100 miles total....all of which except for this past weekend was on the pavement in the snow. jeggers if i were you i'd look into getting a new front shaft before the stock one breaks. i know it sucks spending the money but it's better than having it break when you really need it. not to mention mine broke in half. as soon as i unbolted the front u-joint the drive shaft fell to the ground...well all of it except for the small part still on the t-case spline. after it broke i had to push the back part of the drive shaft back onto the spline because it was almost all the way off. i'm lucky i didn't mess up the output shaft on the t-case. thats probably the biggest reason for replacing it even if it's not broke. i don't even want to think about how much it would cost to fix the t-case if that got messed up too.

jeggers · Post by **jeggers** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 10:40 am

Steve2003 · Post by **Steve2003** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 6:20 pm

jeggers wrote:

I agree

This is not good.

Not to change the subject but my truck has been pulling to the right the past few days, so I took it to SuperTrucks to get a alignment and they told me they couldn't aligne my truck because my lower balljoints are shot! and the upper balljoints are starting to go bad!

F**k! So I have a appointment next wednessday to get both lower and upper replaced! The mods I could of done with the money I'm going to spend on this fix.

I suppose the drive shaft will be next.

At least my wife is taking it good, she said, " just get it fixed and make sure it gets done right!!!"

jeffc, who is Tom Woods?

Steve

gocntry · Post by **gocntry** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 4:17 am

Here Ya Go

Tom Woods

Steve2003 · Post by **Steve2003** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:16 pm

Thanks gocntry!

Steve

Steve2003 · Post by **Steve2003** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:33 pm

Steve2003 wrote:At least my wife is taking it good, she said, " just get it fixed and make sure it gets done right!!!"

That means don't try and do it yourself.

Sounds good to me!

Don't get me wrong doing some light work on my truck, I can appreciate! Thanks to this site. but bloody knuckles and wrenches causes me to loose my temper!

not good! I guess I don't have the patience but I'm trying to learn.

Steve

jeggers · Post by **jeggers** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 7:12 am

Steve how many miles are on your truck? and how many are on the lift? How much have you wheeled it?

Steve2003 · Post by **Steve2003** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:34 pm

jeggers wrote:Steve how many miles are on your truck? and how many are on the lift? How much have you wheeled it?

Almost 38,000 miles on the truck. About 6,000 with the lift, as far as wheeling it, maybe 100 miles, and that's light wheeling. I think I was starting to develop a problem before I had my lift put on. I have a very steep driveway at my house and I was starting to hear some strange noises when turning into my driveway, especially turning into my driveway from a right turn. I think maybe the new rims I put on, with the small backspacing, might not have helped the issue. But anyways, what's done is done and I love my CC and it's going to be fixed.

Steve

jeggers · Post by **jeggers** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 6:48 am

hmmmmmm not good i have those noises too

bwenny247 · Post by **bwenny247** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 7:09 pm

hey jeff, sorry to hear about your problem

I didn't know there was another lifted crew (besides BDS's) in Michigan. and shoot, I drove past Ortonville on US23 last weekend on my way to Ceder Point! would've been cool to get together with someone on here and get some pics of the crews

oh well maybe next time

Steve2003 · Post by **Steve2003** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 7:51 pm

jeggers wrote:hmmmmmm not good i have those noises too

Got the upper and lower ball joints replaced. Only the lower one's were bad. I was told usually the uppers go bad first but I just had them all replaced, no more noises, I didn't want this problem again. They said my cv's looked ok but if those go I will replace those too. I don't do hard core wheeling so my plan is whatever part that goes bad, that's weak, I will replace it until it become a repeat offender. If that happens I may have to consider an SFA or selling my truck, but for now I am sticking with what I have.

Joe, has your truck been pulling to the right or the left?Does it seem like your ball joints are starting to go?

Steve

jeggers · Post by **jeggers** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 5:45 pm

steve,

Picked up my truck last week then went camping. It wasn't pulling at all but i did drive through some ruff roads and had some unpleasant sounds . I thought for sure those lower joints were going to fall out . First thing monday i raised the front ride hight to solve a bottoming out problem and then took it the alighnment shop with in twenty minutes they called and said my lower joints were bad

say it ain't so! Well my next step was the dealer for a free oil change i asked then to take a look at it. They came back with loose bolts on the diff

they took care of it for me nc. i picked it up today and no problems i will check those joints my self soon , but the garage is full and it is finally raining here. It had been 2 months no rain.....

Sorry for the long story......