The build/re-build of Gruff

[E2do7]

Any warning signs? And I ask because I'm debating on Rubi tcase or regular. Now.....what did you break? Seems like a joint..?


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[JKbrick]

I'm debating my next move. I fell in love with the 4:0 lo range in the Rubi case when I used it at Rausch. Now I'm spoiled and won't be happy until I do something about the regular case I'm back to now. The Atlas cases are bloody expensive but the Rubi takeoffs aren't cheap either. IDK. If I could find a Rubi takeoff I'd prolly grab it it and be done. If I don't I'll likely snag an Atlas over next winter because I'd like to attempt another trip next year and I def want to have plenty miles on whatever it is by that time.

One thing I do know is that I'm upping my maintenance routines. This debacle was really expensive and a goddam waste of time. I plan of having the shafts inspected yearly from now on and will do a much more thorough check list every Winter. Really don't want another repeat of this again.

I wonder where that broke if a routine inspection would have discovered it? Is it a clean break or was it older and finally finished breaking?


Sent from my iPad using WAYALIFE mobile app

 

[Ddays]

Any warning signs? And I ask because I'm debating on Rubi tcase or regular. Now.....what did you break? Seems like a joint..?


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

I wonder where that broke if a routine inspection would have discovered it? Is it a clean break or was it older and finally finished breaking?


Sent from my iPad using WAYALIFE mobile app

The pivot in-between the two u-joints on the tcase end of the driveshaft is what failed. The u-joints themselves were in really good shape. My settings on the front axle are fine so it's not like there was something going on with the alignment/castor settings either. And there were absolutely no warning signs before it broke which is awfully strange. I would think that it would have given some vibrations before it failed like it did and there were none. Ironically, I finally was able to find a shop that would balance my tires and had that done a couple weeks ago, The Jeep ran so damn smooth that I caught myself creeping up over 80mph at times in Nebraska.

I had the shaft out and did give it a onceover along with the rear shaft when I swapped the tcase. I'm no driveshaft technician but nothing seemed out of place and I did make sure the joints were all tight. I also wondered if this was something that cracked a while ago but the way the ball and socket ends of the joint beat the hell out of each other there was no way to tell if it was an old break

I am planning on having the shafts re-balanced and inspected every year from now on tho.

Edit: I don't believe the tcase had anything to do with this failure and I wouldn't hesitate installing one E2do7.

 

[E2do7]

Wow. Adams shaft? Or OEM? And I'm glad you found a shop who would balance your tires. I'm still searching for one.


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Ddays]

Wow. Adams shaft? Or OEM? And I'm glad you found a shop who would balance your tires. I'm still searching for one.


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

That was a 1350 Adams shaft.

Keep lookin - I found it's worth getting them balanced. It took me over a year to find someone. Its a brand new custom shop that opened up right by my office. And don't listen to the guys that tell you those stupid balancing beads work. I knew they didn't but still gave them one last try and proved to myself once again that they don't do shit.

 

[Mybadjk]

First I've ever experienced, seen or heard of one of these double cardan joints breaking at the pivot before. The shop I took the shaft to get rebuilt hadn't seen one either and they specialize in the heavy truck field. Figures. So for the record, this is what one looks like after it's come apart

View attachment 298524

View attachment 298525

View attachment 298526

This is what happens to a Tcase when it fails when you're doing 75mph:

View attachment 298527

Which leads to this:

View attachment 298528

That’s crazy! I was worried about mine cause I had a vibration. And have only greased it once or twice. It pulled the shaft and lined it up and it’s good to go. A lot of people don’t know they need to grease the double cardigan joint as well


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

 

[E2do7]

That was a 1350 Adams shaft.

Keep lookin - I found it's worth getting them balanced. It took me over a year to find someone. Its a brand new custom shop that opened up right by my office. And don't listen to the guys that tell you those stupid balancing beads work. I knew they didn't but still gave them one last try and proved to myself once again that they don't do shit.

I'll keep looking. Keep us posted on what direction you going with tcase and if you going new shafts.


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Ddays]

That’s crazy! I was worried about mine cause I had a vibration. And have only greased it once or twice. It pulled the shaft and lined it up and it’s good to go. A lot of people don’t know they need to grease the double cardigan joint as well


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

How do you grease them? There's no way to get anything in there other than spray something on the exposed part of the ball. I asked the shop that rebuilt it and he said you can;t service the joint other than take it apart and repack it with grease.Is that what you mean?

I'll keep looking. Keep us posted on what direction you going with tcase and if you going new shafts.


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

WIll do, although I am keeping the same shafts.

 

[Mybadjk]

How do you grease them? There's no way to get anything in there other than spray something on the exposed part of the ball. I asked the shop that rebuilt it and he said you can;t service the joint other than take it apart and repack it with grease.Is that what you mean?



WIll do, although I am keeping the same shafts.

Lots of patience. Lol best is to put frame on jacks, remove wheels and drop the axle all the way but still a pain.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

 

[Ddays]

Lots of patience. Lol best is to put frame on jacks, remove wheels and drop the axle all the way but still a pain.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

Well I'm gonna give it a try from now on. In talking with Jeffj, he told me he drops his shafts frequently (every 4k miles I think he told me) and greases his ujoints. I don't have greaseable ujoints like he does but I can still try and jam some grease in the pivot points I guess. Sure do wish I had the garage height for a lift.

 

[cozdude]

Well I'm gonna give it a try from now on. In talking with Jeffj, he told me he drops his shafts frequently (every 4k miles I think he told me) and greases his ujoints. I don't have greaseable ujoints like he does but I can still try and jam some grease in the pivot points I guess. Sure do wish I had the garage height for a lift.

If you have solid u joints Jerry you can’t grease the joints. They prob have greasable u joints which requires you to drop the shaft to get to the fittings.

 

[JKbrick]

Well I'm gonna give it a try from now on. In talking with Jeffj, he told me he drops his shafts frequently (every 4k miles I think he told me) and greases his ujoints. I don't have greaseable ujoints like he does but I can still try and jam some grease in the pivot points I guess. Sure do wish I had the garage height for a lift.

That would be every 2 years for the Brick


Sent from my iPad using WAYALIFE mobile app

 

[Ddays]

If you have solid u joints Jerry you can’t grease the joints. They prob have greasable u joints which requires you to drop the shaft to get to the fittings.

Its not the u-jounts - its the center pivot between the ujoints.




I asked for the solid joints again on the rebuild for the strength and so I didn't have to worry bout greasing them at least.
But I'm still skeptical about being able to grease that pivot. I don't see how that's a servicable part. :idontknow:

 

[Coop]

If you have solid u joints Jerry you can’t grease the joints. They prob have greasable u joints which requires you to drop the shaft to get to the fittings.

Yea Jerry, I think those of us with the extreme joints are somewhat out of luck with greasing anything on the shaft except the slip joint. I wonder what Adams has to say? Thinking about giving them a call. Short of pulling the shafts and having a shop look them over and checking the balance, I don’t know what else to do.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

 

[Ddays]

Yea Jerry, I think those of us with the extreme joints are somewhat out of luck with greasing anything on the shaft except the slip joint. I wonder what Adams has to say? Thinking about giving them a call. Short of pulling the shafts and having a shop look them over and checking the balance, I don’t know what else to do.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

There really isn't any way to do anything to that joint short of disassembling that carrier that holds the ujoints and re-packing it with grease. I just went out and checked it again and there isn't any way to insert grease into that joint. It has to be taken apart.

 

[Coop]

There really isn't any way to do anything to that joint short of disassembling that carrier that holds the ujoints and re-packing it with grease. I just went out and checked it again and there isn't any way to insert grease into that joint. It has to be taken apart.

Just wondering what the frequency of tear down and greasing should be. I know with the stresses and strains of off-roading there isn’t a straight answer, but with your significant TC failure, which I don’t want to repeat, I gotta know what the recommended “average” frequency “should” be.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

 

[cozdude]

Just wondering what the frequency of tear down and greasing should be. I know with the stresses and strains of off-roading there isn’t a straight answer, but with your significant TC failure, which I don’t want to repeat, I gotta know what the recommended “average” frequency “should” be.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

I don’t think that joint lead to the t case snapping. If anything I think the t case snapped lead to the joint failure. As far as service intervals you would prob have to call Adams to see what they say as far as how often to replace the double cardigan joint

 

[WJCO]

I was under the impression that it is not serviceable on a standard shaft. My WJ has a factory front driveshaft that happens to be the ideal DC style just like yours and there is no grease fitting to lubricate that part of the joint. When I did my axle swap, I had to shorten the shaft and had the driveline guy rebuild it too. Still no grease fitting present. It had 150k on it prior to axle swap.

 

[Coop]

I don’t think that joint lead to the t case snapping. If anything I think the t case snapped lead to the joint failure. As far as service intervals you would prob have to call Adams to see what they say as far as how often to replace the double cardigan joint

Definitely in my plans to talk with Adams. With the destruction level of the drive shaft joint and TC, hard to know which led to the failure. About the only preventative measures is to keep the drive shaft lubed, check alignment and tighten everything down, and lube the TC. Any thing else to check?


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

 

[Ddays]

I don’t think that joint lead to the t case snapping. If anything I think the t case snapped lead to the joint failure. As far as service intervals you would prob have to call Adams to see what they say as far as how often to replace the double cardigan joint

I was under the impression that it is not serviceable on a standard shaft. My WJ has a factory front driveshaft that happens to be the ideal DC style just like yours and there is no grease fitting to lubricate that part of the joint. When I did my axle swap, I had to shorten the shaft and had the driveline guy rebuild it too. Still no grease fitting present. It had 150k on it prior to axle swap.

Definitely in my plans to talk with Adams. With the destruction level of the drive shaft joint and TC, hard to know which led to the failure. About the only preventative measures is to keep the drive shaft lubed, check alignment and tighten everything down, and lube the TC. Any thing else to check?

I wish I could know definitively which part failed first. The owner of shop that fixed me up thought that the DS failed leading to the Tcase. I leaned that way as well but I just don;t know. The way it happened and how quickly it went from nothing to catastrophic was crazy. It was like maybe 4-5 seconds. And I;m with you Doug, I thought these joints lasted a good long time with no maintenance.

Oh well, time to quit beating a dead horse. It happened, I got it fixed, made it back home with no permanent damage so in the end I was pretty damn lucky. Time to move on. I do plan on having it taken apart next Winter and re-greased just for the hell of it to see how its wearing. :idontknow: