you can unbolt the front end of the driveshaft, tie it up and drive it to see if you still hear the noise

 

That's on the agenda today.

 

That doesn't sound like my angry sparrows did. The sound my front driveshaft was making was very consistent. To me that sounds more like something rattling around

 

Very well could be. That's what's so frustrating about not being able to hear it. I'm pretty good at diagnosing, but it's difficult when I have to rely on someone else's ears.

 

Sounds like angry sparrows to me...very similar to when I had that problem. Drive taking the front driveshaft out of the equation to see if they go away.

 

Agreed sounds just like mine did.

 

Well, apparently the sound was not the driveshaft. I've had what I thought was intermittent power steering noise and was going to replace the pump while I was working on the driveshaft.

I pull into the driveway yesterday and its making the power steering pump whine sound. I notice that turning the wheel does nothing to change the sound whatsoever, so I pop the hood and grab a yardstick to listen for the source. Lo and behold, it's coming from the idler pulley.

I made the 2 hour trip this morning to grab a replacement at the parts store (living in the boonies has its downside). I replaced it and took my wife with me for a test drive this evening. She says the screeching is gone.

So...

Any advice on whether I should go ahead and rebuild the driveshaft anyway, kind of preventive maintainece? I'm pretty sure they're the original u joints and they have 145,000 on them and have been in there since the jeep was built in March 1996.

The best deal I've found on the u joints and centering ball and yoke are from Amazon it'll cost me about 150 for all of it. Could be cheap insurance compared to what can happen if that bad boy seizes up and destroys the transfer case or some such horrendousness.

Opinions? Advice?


Thanks!

 

Any advice on whether I should go ahead and rebuild the driveshaft anyway, kind of preventive maintainece? I'm pretty sure they're the original u joints and they have 145,000 on them and have been in there since the jeep was built in March 1996.

I'd do it as preventative maintenance based on mileage alone. I rebuilt mine at about 100k.

The best deal I've found on the u joints and centering ball and yoke are from Amazon it'll cost me about 150 for all of it.

Denny's has the complete sealed kit for $126 shipped.

 

Yeah and I'd trust Denny over Amazon. If something goes wrong with the Amazon, who you going to call? They don't know a lot about Jeeps, and most of the time neither do the folks selling there. Denny knows Jeeps.

 

Thanks guys! Just ordered the rebuild kit.

 

Rebuild hell

Just got my driveshaft put back together and it was a major pain in the ass. I worked in a shop in my youth and I've replaced hundreds of u-joints... But never any with a centering ball. Everything was going good until I got it back together and the double cardon joint was binding and wouldn't rotate to the center. Pulled it back apart and everything looked right. Still binding.

I ended up repeating that about a half dozen times with no luck. In the past couple weeks I've read lots of posts and reviews on various sites, making sure I ordered the right parts. In all that reading, I ran across one guy who was having the exact same binding problem I was having. He said he called Dennys and had no luck until he measured the depth of the new centering ball vs the old one and the new one was shallower. I tried to measure it with a caliper, but didn't have any luck because the measurement would change if the ball wasnt exactly centered.

I didn't want to risk ruining the new part by removing the ball to measure, so I ended up cutting about 1/16 off the center pin on the driveshaft. This was the solution for the guy I mentioned above. It worked like a charm. Unfortunately, I can't find that post now so I can't read any more about it.

Any ideas on why I had to do this? My tj is a 97 model but was built in March of 1996. I've ran across other things that are peculiar to early 97's that don't jibe with the fsm or with later years.

I don't see how shortening the pin by a tiny amount will hurt anything. I may be wrong, but I hope not. I'll put the driveshaft back in tomorrow and take it for a test drive to see how it does.

I'm done for tonight. I don't even want to think about u-joints right now.

 

Does that kit from Denny's go into an 06' TJ

 

It looks like it fits all tj's except for Rubicon. I would call Dennys to make sure though.

 

Bumping this in case someone has the same issue in the future...

It's been a little over a month and the jeep started chirping yesterday morning. Ran the noise down and it's the cv joint.

I called Denny's and talked to them about it. I talked to him about the problem I had with the centering ball stud being too long and causing bind. He said it's rare, but he has seen it before and had to cut the stud down.

I pulled the driveshaft until the u joint press I ordered comes in. I've changed hundreds with a vise, hammer and socket but I decided to make life easier so I ordered a press.

I'll report back with what I find when i tear it down again. I was able to find technical drawings from Spicer, so I can see exactly what is going on with the cv

 

I had a similar situation 3-4 years ago. The first time I got angry sparrows, I changed out all the joints and rebuilt the centering ball. It started making the same noise again about two months later, so I ordered a new Tom Wood's shaft. I think something flexes/wears in the stock double cardan assembly that starts eating the centering ball.

 

*update*

My press came in today so I tore into the driveshaft to see what's going on. I really didn't see anything obviously wrong. I found technical drawings from Spicer so I checked the centering stud with a dial caliper. The specs call for the stud diameter to be .5000. The stud was free of any damage and measured. 501. The length of the stud is supposed to be .5940. It measured .612, which is 18 thousandths too long. I filed it down to spec and chamfered it with my redneck machine shop tool (flat file). I polished it up with very fine Emory cloth. I wiped everything down to remove any filings or metal dust. Per Denny's instructions I packed the center of the stud with Chrysler - compatible wheel bearing grease. The guy at Denny's said wheel bearing grease is compatible with the grease Spicer uses, so that's what I used.

I also lightly greased the inside of the rubber boot, per his instructions. Reassembled everything and no more squeaks. Took the jeep out for a test drive and no noise whatsoever.

Hopefully this does it. The only issue I saw was a small rough place in the cup that surrounds the centering stud. I polished it out best I could with the fine Emory, so time will tell how it works.

The centering stud being that much too long is a little puzzling to me. I had already filed it down some last time, so it was probably around .025 too long. The design of the centering yoke is different now from the 20 year old one that was in it, but I haven't found anything saying the yoke on the driveshaft changed.

I guess we'll see. I just wanted to post an update in case someone runs into a similar problem in the future.


Oh yeah...the press makes working on it so much easier :thumb:

 

What model of press did you get?

 

I ordered this one from Amazon :

https://www.amazon.com/Astro-7865-Service-Tool-Adapters/dp/B00061SGJ0

It had good reviews and seems pretty beefy. I live in the boonies so I can't just go pick one up locally.

 

Thanks!