...Luckily I was very close to home, called the family pit crew and I was home in 10 mins with a tow strap.
Glad it happened so close. But fyi (in case you didn't know already) with a few basic hand tools (just a couple of combo wrenches actually) you can remove the rear shaft and drive however far you need to. Should something like this ever happen again that is.
Of course, if you didn't have tools, or were in your Sunday go-to-meetin' best and didn't want to crawl under the truck, I totally understand!
;D
It had been chirping back there recently, so I disconnected the u-joint from the axle in order to grease it about a week ago, and greased the slip yoke as well.
Just how long did it stay quiet? While it could have been the rear joint, my usual experiences with these things is that the odd chirping and such comes from something going wrong with the double-cardan section.
How much grease did you add when it was installed? Or has it been awhile?
And how tight did you run the nuts up? I think we've talked about it here before, so you probably know that it's only something like 10-15 lbs or so, with good lock-washers and perhaps some light Locktite (but I've never had a lock-washer come loose on a u-joint) but too tight, or too dry won't live very long.
Today I removed the drive shaft and found that the slip yoke is very hard for me to move back and forth...shouldn't it slide rather easily?
Yes.
And could this be part of the reason it broke loose?
Maybe, but probably only a part of it. Very likely the beating it took bouncing around tweaked something in the splines and spines and it's toast.
Also the double-cardan assembly looks pretty rough, to include whatever you call the joint between the u-joints.
The "centering yoke" is the outside bit, and the "centering ball" is the ball bit.
And yes, it's mighty beat up. But look particularly at the two flat spots on the centering yoke's eyes.
Sure looks like "witness marks" if I've ever seen one! What was it hitting and why? And how often? Was it a constant rubbing, perhaps from too much angle? Or was it simply getting beat up right at the last minute while flailing around under the truck?
Hopefully it was that last gasp that did those, and not something during normal use.
So...am I a new drive shaft candidate or can this all be fixed? I'd prefer not to spend $300 on a new shaft but certainly will if that's what I need, thanks folks.
I hear ya on the cost, especially if you can fix it. But it's going to depend on the slip shaft I think. If it's the outer part with the rear yoke, then maybe a local shaft builder has that part that they can sell. Probably costs $50-$90, depending on who's selling it and if they're hen's teeth or a common stocked part.
You "shouldn't" need to replace the centering ball/yoke assembly (and whatever else all the parts of the double-cardan holder are called complete) just from what I see, and you can buy rebuild kits for a toasted ball, but if both took a beating and need replacing, you might as well get a new shaft.
You can buy the whole thing for $300 like you said, or maybe a local shop would replace just the splined end and you can re-use your double-cardan and shaft section. That will still likely put you into the $200 range if you have it done, but it's at least worth searching to make sure.
At that point though (that $200 point) you might as well get a new shaft.
Good luck.
Paul
