Driveshaft help with a lifted GW

[berettaguy]

Hi folks,

I have an '89 Grand Wagoneer with a 6 inch BJ's lift and a stock 360/727/NP229 drivetrain. A couple of weeks ago I was driving home from the butcher shop, thankfully on a pretty quiet street, and I heard a loud clang and a series of smaller clangs and had no power. I coasted it maybe 40-45 ft into the nearest parking lot, and found my driveshaft lying on the ground. It's the first pic here:

http://imgur.com/a/GkcM4

Uh-oh. I had the car towed immediately over to my mechanic?s shop. He brought the rear driveshaft over to the driveshaft shop to be checked out, and they told him the rear shaft was slightly bent and needed to be replaced (to the tune of a few hundred $$$). I'm pretty sure he had to get a new U-joint, and I assume he bought new hardware and straps for it while he was there, but I'll double check next time I see him.

Yesterday I received a call from my mechanic, and he says that the front yoke on the rear driveshaft needs to be replaced, but his usual local suppliers don't have them. I went over to his shop where I picked up the yoke so I can take some measurements. As you can see in the second and third pics in that album, the yoke definitely has some unusual wear on it. Is that part just called a slip yoke or rear transfer case yoke or is there some other special name for it?

I sent an email over to the FSJ email list (those guys rock), and they suggested that the abnormal wear was the result of too steep a driveline angle. Visually that makes sense to me. They also suggested that the solution was to convert to a CV style shaft. Do you guys agree with that? Since I already had a new rear driveshaft made, that?s not too appealing to me. Is there such a thing as a high angle transfer case yoke that has more tolerance? I honestly don?t do any hard core wheeling, but I have 33" tires and hate having to replace the same parts over and over again. What do the off-road gurus suggest?

Lastly when searching for stock replacements I ran across a few different part numbers listed from Dana-Spicer.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sdh-211355x/overview/
or
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...6672&ppt=C0362
or maybe this Crown part is right:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/c...ew-process-229

Do you guys know which the correct one for our application is?

Thank you in advance for the advice!

[77Deepj20]

I can't imagine you would need a higher angle driveshaft with a 6" lift
. A CV driveshaft doesn't have anymore working angle than a single u joint in most setups, its used when the proper driveshaft ujoint angles cannot be achieved, not to gain working angle.

I couldn't get your link to work do I cant help with the yoke, but if the driveshaft does not have a expansion yoke built into it, then the attachment to the transfer case is.a slip yoke. If it does, then the yoke on the transfer case is fixed, bolted on, and is a fixed yoke. The yokes on the driveshaft itself that are welded to it are weld yokes and a usually.pretty common and inexpensive but need to be matched to the driveshaft tube OD and ID

[CutterN55]

I think the XJ shaft yokes will work if I remember right. If not you can grab a whole 1310 double-cardon rear and modify it to meet your needs. A Bj's 6" lift does not normally warrant new shafts but it will put your stock shaft a little on the extended side. angles usually aren't an issue though with their 6" lift as well.

If it were me, I'd source another stock rear shaft, put some good 760X U-joints in it, and rebuild the cardon joint. you can do all this yourself with a vise and a couple sockets or a brass drift a 3lb hammer, and some determination.

[J20 project]

Have you found resolution to this yet, I am running cv shafts front and back on my rig.
J20

[berettaguy]

Found a fix!

For those of you who had been following along with my driveshaft saga, after buying a new replacement rear driveshaft and U joint, we discovered that the rear yoke coming out of my NP229 transfer case was too worn out to reuse. It turns out that the rear yoke for that transfer case is no longer manufactured by Spicer or anyone else.

However, I found a fix! Spicer does make a yoke the right length, the correct inner diameter, and with the correct number of splines. However, the outer shaft diameter is considerably thicker than the stock one. With the help of Houston Drivetrain and quite a bit of research, we found a replacement seal of the correct inner and outer diameter that fits in the back of the NP229. The parts you need are Spicer 2-4-4191-1 for the end yoke, Federal 473204 for the new seal, and Spicer 2-70-18x for the beating strap kit. I've been driving for a couple of weeks with it installed with absolutely no problems. I hope this helps someone else keep their rig on the road!

[J20 project]

Berrettaguy, do you remember the hub/seal diameter of the original yoke?


J20