squeaking/clicking/annoying/scary driveshaft

[SenorCole86]

Hey guys. I just got my jeep back up and running last night and after some mildly hard driving the rear part of the cj started making some funny noises. He thinks it's something in the drums, I think it's coming from the driveshaft, and I put it up on jack stands when I got home and I'm pretty sure I'm right. It's kinda hard for me to get the wheels spinning fast enough to make it make the noise, but I eventually did for a second. I'm thinking screwed up U-joint or something? I'm fixing to go pull the ds right now. Question is, how do I diagnose a bad joint, or how do I tell if it's something to do with the yoke on the transmission or diff or something. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated, thanks a lot. Adios.

 

[TwistedCU]

twist the DS back and forth. U joints should not have any play in them at all. are they greaseable? IT's prolly too late but you should always keep fresh grease in 'em

 

[TwistedCU]

U joints are fairly easy to replace.

 

[SenorCole86]

Yeah, that's what I figured. I looked up the process in my Chilton and wasn't really intimidated. Aaaaand, well, I feel like a retard for asking this question, but the u-bolts are held in by some weird male torx bolt that I can't seem to get any socket (metric or standard) to fit around. 9/32 is too big and 1/4 is too small. I have no problem wrapping a pair of vice grips around them, but I know that if I do that, I'll ruin the bolts. Are these bolts some weird thread size that I won't be able to find at Ace Hardware? I just wanna make sure before I go tearing them out.

TC: There is a very small bit of play in the shafts but it's not at the u-joints, it's up inside of the transmission and diff, but it feels like the gears and everything are catching pretty solid, (when I twist the ds) so I'm not really worried. Should I be?

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

Sounds like it may be a 12pt. bolt, do you have any 12pt. sockets?

Remove the rear driveshaft and take a short run with only the front driveshaft, that'll likely narrow the problem down. I'd replace all the ujoints anyway, cheap and easy as well as being regular maintenance. Then see what it does.

 

[SenorCole86]

Ah, there you go Bounty. It is a 12 pt socket. I didn't know such a thing existed. Thanks a lot, I'll be making a trip to Ace tomorrow for a socket then. Once I get it out, I'll tell y'all how it goes. Thanks a lot.

Hey TC, what happened to your XJ?

 

[redrooster]

With the shaft in the Jeep, you can push up and down and side to side. If you get movement then you either have a bad u-joint or another problem. Squeaking usually indicates that a joint is running dry. By the time it gets warm enough to squeak it is already ruined and will need to be replaced.
For swapping u-joints, I use a large socket to put under the joint (that the cap will fall into) and a brass drift with a BFH for persuasion. If you don't have a drift, you can use an el-cheapo deep well socket or something similar. For installation, I normally use a 6" c clamp.
Good luck.

 

[TwistedCU]

Hey TC, what happened to your XJ?

It's gone. It was a commuter as well as a toy. 17 mpg for a 126 mile round trip daily commute was killing me, so I got rid of it, bought a 50 mpg hywy diesel Jetta and a 91 YJ just for a toy.

 

[SenorCole86]

Aaaaah, well, welcome to the SWB crowd then. Have fun with it. And thanks for the help Redrooster

 

[SenorCole86]

I got the new u-joints into the driveshaft and the c-clips slid in ok, but the u-joints don't spin too freely. I was wondering if this was normal. My guess is that the motion of the driveshaft will correct everything once I get it back under there, I just wanted to make sure before I bolted it back up.