A Thousand Points of Expense...

[Frank]

With apologies to ex-prez George Bush! Well, my list for Santa goes like this and the items are in order of magnitude...
- My mechanic called it a C.V. joint - it's on the transfer case-end of the front drive shaft. I owned three front wheel drive cars and C.V. joints looked a lot different to me... Haynes calls it a universal joint with which I concur... Anyway, the joint is sloppy and squeaks moderately when in 4WD; not so loud in 2WD. I was advised to get it rebuilt locally (a shop is three miles away) and we figured it'd cost $125-$150. Is this okay or is there another avenue I may explore? He told me a new one (if available) would be at least double $150 price. I'm holding out hope that one of you great guys will tell me "I got mine for $29.99!" Hey, I can hope, can't I? http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/biggrin.gif
- Rear leaf springs. A local shop can construct new ones per my preference (stiffer/original/softer) for about $140 for the pair. That's about the cheapest I've seen and my mech swears by the outfit, saying he's sent a lot of his customers there. The sag is getting slowly worse and I've got a failed shock on one side...
- EGR anti knock suite... A local Chrysler dealer says the numbers I supplied come up as valid so that's step three...

My balky tailgate window seems to pale in comparison to these minor setbacks. We'll talk tires when my Hoosiers thin down a bit more but let me add they're no good for wet/slick pavement - last weekend was a wake up call...
I can start to understand why my dad walked away from our Wag when it acted up - not that I'm gonna give up that easily!

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Frank
'88 Grand Wagoneer, "Sluggo"
Box Stock, 2" Bodylift

[River Beast]

Howdy neighbor... oops...sshhhhh... don't tell anyone (hehe)

the CV, or better known as the double-cardin joint, is a unique one. I had mine redone and got ripped off for $252!!! http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/mad.gif $150 isn't bad as long as they know what they are doing.... I heard others doing it themselves but I wouldn't try it on mine... I got scared..<sigh> I wish I had though.... probably wouldn't have blown apart. Others here hav had theirs done cheaper.... don't know who but they are out there I remember a couple posts a while back... do a search...

Don't feel bad... my new front shaft is costing me $800 cuz of my high angle driveline! Wanna trade??? I'll get you a NEW shaft now and you buy mine for me http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Todd
78 Wagoneer, "River Beast"
360/TH400/QT
Dana 44's locked w/ 4.89's
39.50x15x15 Super Swamper TSL's
7" SOA in front-7" Rear Shackle Inversion Mods
4" Skyjacker Softride
3" Trailmaster Bodylift
My FSJ site: http://www.geocities.com/spazz4life (http://www.geocities.com/spazz4life)
My E-mail: monster_fsj@hotmail.com
"If you can't stop...SMILE as you go under!"

'93 3/4 ton 4x4 Suburban...a.k.a. "FSJ Hauler"

[Brazzy]

If the double cardin is sloppy maybe you should consider parkin it until you can fix it. I have read all kinds of horror tales of holes in trannies and t casses from these things lettin go.
It's not real hard to change out this joint just a little patience and wrestling with the center spring loaded thingie. Its like changing a multiple universal. No spec's or measurements to worry with http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/smile.gif I had never done one before this one!!!

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Brazzy
Formerly abused 87 G.W. 170k stock
TOW,PKG,727,229,360
The Chariot

[Frank]

So, what you guys are saying is there really isn't a $29.99 miracle fix for this, huh? http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/rolleyes.gif

River Beast, I'd like to help you out but if I took yours, I'd hafta raise Sluggo to new heights and my twins have a hard enough time getting up and down now! Hayna or no? (inside joke)

As for parking it, you're right, Brazzy. This situation is exactly what happened to our '78 when I was living at home - the joint broke and whacked the tranny case. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. With that fresh in my mind from 20 years ago, I took it in to get a diagnosis.

My mechanic assured me it it wasn't a driving hazard yet but it would develop into one and suggested I pull it myself to save some money. That looks like the plan for now - until I get out there on the cold, cold ground with a stubborn bolt or two and then, it's off to his shop...

Why don't these things have boots on them? http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/mad.gif

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Frank
'88 Grand Wagoneer, "Sluggo"
Box Stock, 2" Bodylift

[Teach]

They don't have boots because AMC couldn't decide on sharkskin or full quill ostrich!

[miked]

just did my front driveshaft, parts alone thru the local parts house were ~$70. wasn't sure if i could do the job never having done u-joints before, but all it took was a big hammer and i used some of my larger sockets to beat the old joints out. my center one still has a hitch in it so i need to take it back out and see if one of the needles came out. took about an hour or so to do it, but took some extra time to clean it. one of the nice things is that you get to see the elusive center grease fitting location for future reference while on the bench vs. looking for it while under the truck. i'd rate it about a 3 on the 1 to 10 scale of difficulty, with a 10 being rocket science. any job that gets easier based on getting a larger hammer out has got to have something going for it... be sure to use your craftsman sockets so after you beat the cr*p out of them you can take them back and exchange them for new ones at no cost when the chrome peels off after awhile.

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Mike D'Ambrogia - San Ramon, CA
69 Custom Wagoneer - The Firetruck. For the full story... (http://www.tworock.com/mjd/firetruck.html)

Built 350 w/ Buick 4 barrel manifold, 600 cfm quadra-jet, RV cam, 10:1, Pertronix ignition,8mm plug wires
MSD coil
rebuilt TH400 w/ B&M shift kit
Herculiner over new floorboards
Complete rewire with American Autowire Power Plus kit

LPG/Propane install coming soon!

[BIGYELLOW78J10]

Frank,

I just had my front driveshaft and C.V. joint rebuilt. I'll agree this C.V. joint is a whole different animal than those of my old hondas. Anyway, as long as you joint has snapped no parts, a good driveline shop should charge you about $100. $70 dollars for the rebuild kit and the rest for labor. It is a real quick job, if you pull the shaft yourself.

Since you have parttime 4wd and don't need the front shaft for normal operation, try to pull the shaft yourself. Give yourself plenty of time on the next warm day. Spray everything off with a cleaner, soak all the bolts with a penetrant and take your time. It will be much cheaper bringing in the shaft rather than the entire truck. Look for a shop that specializes in driveline work, like a shop that caters to big rigs. If everything is in rebuildable condition $100 at a good shop is reasonable. If however, you have a problem, like a broken centering bearing, like I had, you'll pay around $200. Ask for an estimate and an explaination, nicely. Most of these guys are really honest good guys, but attacking them over a high amount of money isn't worthwhile. If you can't find a good price and all else fails, maybe you could ship it to me, but that'll be costly.
Anyway, if you pull the shaft, hold it by the long end and rotate it. If the other end flops loosely, be prepared for the worst. You could do better to look for a wrecked rig to harvest a shaft from. Good luck and keep at it.

Daniel

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78 J-10 Rumblin Wreck (http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte644i/TRUCK.jpg)
2v 360 V-8
Stock down to the rust
Highway speed in about an Hour

[Panther]

I agree, pull it off yourself first.

I had the front driveshaft go on my CJ doing 70+ mph on the highway, YIKES! The good thing is that it went at the tcase and not at the diff! I have heard horror stories of front drive shafts going and flipping jeeps when it breaks at the diff and hits the ground poll-vaulting the jeep around. UGLY! When mine went it basically took out everything within it's range, gas lines, tcase shifting linkage, an air line I had there and numerous dents in the frame and floor board. This is a little different because it's a stock DS on a SOA CJ7 and not a CV on a wag but still broken drivetrain is not pretty at higher speeds is not good.

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88 GW stock
82 Scrambler
84 CJ7