Thought you guys might enjoy my story from tuesday. I decided to drive the Jeep to work. It seemed to have a slight vibration that I hadn't noticed before, but I figured I had lost a wheel weight or had a clump of mud stuck in a wheel throwing it off balance, so I kept going.

About 3 miles from the office, I hit big stick in the road. About 5 seconds latter, I the truck starts shaking and I hear the awful "clunking". I knew I had lost part of the drivetrain, so I coasted into the nearest parking lot.

So, I get out and find the rear driveshaft just hanging there from the back of the T-Case about 4" off the ground. I had lost the rear U-Joint. It didn't snap in the middle tho, it ripped the little retainer straps off the pinion yoke (I'm probably darn lucky it didn't break the yoke in half). Best I can tell, the bearings locked up and wouldn't allow the U-joint to flex. I guess it was already half gone and the stick finished it off. Good thing it's lifted with big tires, or that driveshaft would be toast [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Anyway, I didn't have a single tool with me - not even as much a pocket knife. Luckily, I had a cell phone, so I was able to call home, tell Mom where the socket set was and have here bring it to me. I removed the driveshaft with plans to limp home in 4WD.
Got everything ready and went to lock the hubs. The driver side hub is missing one bolt (guess I lost it in the last mud hole) and the other are pretty loose. I wasn't about to drive it like that for fear of breaking the hub and being really stuck. Autozone was a mile down the road, so I went and got new bolts, tighted the hub, and made it home.

I jumped in the Zook, ran down to the parts store and got new U-joints, had some fun with the easy-outs on the broken retainer bolts, and finally, the old CJ was rolling again. I finally made it to work about 8:30 that night (I originally left the house at 2:00 and it's about 15 miles) [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Sadly, I don't think this makes me a real Jeeper, 'cause I should have been carrying the tools I needed. [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

-Derek Schwab
'97 Sidekick Sport
'83 CJ-7

Go to NAPA and purchase new straps and bolts for all of the u joints . The sets are pretty cheap like a few bucks per joint . Use some thread locker on them and torque to like 10-15 LB Ft of torque .

Actually, those were new straps from NAPA. Just changed them about a month ago [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif[/img], but it was an old U-Joint, and probably didn't have any grease in it, so I think that was the problem this time.
Before I do any more serious wheelin', I'm gonna replace the U-Joints in the front Drive shaft and in the fron Axle shafts. Those look like they've been in there forever.
BTW, I put LocTite on all the bolts when I changed the U-Joints.

-Derek Schwab
'97 Sidekick Sport
'83 CJ-7

Hey Derek, I think what was being suggested is that you change out the "strap" style retainers in favor of the heavier-duty U-BOLT reatiner. The straps suck and those itty-bitty bolts will shear off at the worst possible times, in the worst possible manners.

It's a common swap and will not leave you fooling with easy-outs if you should happen to break one. Much easier for trail repairs. It would have reduced your ordeal into a 1 hour job (tops) including time to put new joint in the shaft.

I know we've been over the mod here a couple of times, try a search, there might be a link or two.

'83 CJ-7 nothing original but the tub and axle tubes