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Drive shaft blue stuff

ransil

Bronco Guru
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
Messages
8,127
My rear driveshaft wont move on the splines, had to use a ratchet strap between 2 trees to get it seperated.

Does the blue stuff swell up after a few years, my splines are boogered up a bit near the top,i was gonna clean them up a bit but i can only get the botton part on as far as the picture.

Splines do not look twisted or bent.

68149d980cc0c7ae72b220bdacf85fb7.jpg
00dbb253ed73e5317d116b254889ba3e.jpg
030845392653acf9d89f5ac5bfd11ff0.jpg


Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

B RON CO

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Bronco Guru
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Jun 29, 2016
Messages
2,444
Loc.
Statesville, NC
Hi, my Chevy truck, think Snap On truck, has that plastic coating on the splines on the drive shaft slip thing. I never saw it on a Bronco. Good luck
 

sanndmann3

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 13, 2007
Messages
1,790
The driveshaft I got from Bronco vendor had that as well. I think its teflon? mine seized up too. peeled the junk off and ran it as is. there is a bit of slot in the spline but oh well...
 

Broncobowsher

Total hack
Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Messages
35,628
The blue stuff is a low friction anti-wear coating. When working correctly, parts fit together correctly, not overloaded, not contaminated, etc. it allows the slip yoke to slip smoother and less wear on the slip. Under extreme (overload) conditions the plastic has been known to squeeze out. Not a fault of the coating, a fault of whoever speced out the slip yoke for not picking one with the correct torque rating.

The plastic falling off is a failure. Chipping it off and putting it together will be a sloppy fit and is basicly putting together a worn out slip joint. It will vibrate because it will never run true.

Trying to figure out what happened. Being that it is a full splined shaft the seal should have been splined as well. You should be able to unscrew the cap on the female side to access the seal. The plastic coating looks to only be partial but the wear looks like the slip was over-compressed. Don't know if it was ordered right and later squeezed by some swap, speced wrong, or built wrong. By chance was this built as a long travel driveshaft?

At this point if you want it fixed right it needs to go to a drive shaft shop. Maybe not the one it came from. The slip needs replaced. If the CV is bad, probably best to just get a new shaft built. Lots of power and gearing in front of the shaft? Let them know and the slip may be upsized to handle it better. You really should walk in with 3 measurments. Fully compressed, ride height, full droop. That way they can get the travel correct. If all you give them is ride height they will set that to about mid stroke. Which may not be enough travel in one or both directions.
 

nvrstuk

Contributor
Just a Bronco driver for over 50 yrs!
Joined
Jul 31, 2001
Messages
9,384
Loc.
PNW
I had the exact same looking DS hassle about a dozen years ago from Tom Wood's...maybe longer-- 15+ years??? Anyway, it took my backhoe, 2 chains with one hooked to a tree with the DS in the middle to pull it apart... I am not kidding!!! Couldn't believe how stuck it was.It took a lot of pressure. Sent it back, they repaired it without the "blue stuff". I've been using Tom Woods since the early 90's w/o any issues, except this one...glad it failed at home and not on a Bronco vacation somewhere...
 

DirtDonk

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Messages
49,236
Yep, started seeing that stuff in the late '80's I think (maybe earlier, but don't remember) and while it seemed like a great idea, it didn't last like it was expected to.
I think we started seeing wear and tear on the blue stuff within about two or three years of starting to sell shafts with it.

Paul
 
OP
OP
R

ransil

Bronco Guru
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
Messages
8,127
The blue stuff is a low friction anti-wear coating. When working correctly, parts fit together correctly, not overloaded, not contaminated, etc. it allows the slip yoke to slip smoother and less wear on the slip. Under extreme (overload) conditions the plastic has been known to squeeze out. Not a fault of the coating, a fault of whoever speced out the slip yoke for not picking one with the correct torque rating.

The plastic falling off is a failure. Chipping it off and putting it together will be a sloppy fit and is basicly putting together a worn out slip joint. It will vibrate because it will never run true.

Trying to figure out what happened. Being that it is a full splined shaft the seal should have been splined as well. You should be able to unscrew the cap on the female side to access the seal. The plastic coating looks to only be partial but the wear looks like the slip was over-compressed. Don't know if it was ordered right and later squeezed by some swap, speced wrong, or built wrong. By chance was this built as a long travel driveshaft?

At this point if you want it fixed right it needs to go to a drive shaft shop.

Maybe not the one it came from. The slip needs replaced. If the CV is bad, probably best to just get a new shaft built. Lots of power and gearing in front of the shaft? Let them know and the slip may be upsized to handle it better. You really should walk in with 3 measurments. Fully compressed, ride height, full droop. That way they can get the travel correct. If all you give them is ride height they will set that to about mid stroke. Which may not be enough travel in one or both directions.

The shaft has rock rash ( spotter error ;D) on the splines where its worn/chipped the seal is trash and is unsplined, I have a new one .

this shaft is 5 years old from a driveshaft company on the east coast
 

broncosam

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
Messages
1,186
Had to have a rear drive shaft rebuilt for a '77 F150 4x4 I had years ago and it came back from the shop looking like that. I think they called that coating Glide-coat or something like that. It was okay for a while but it started peeling and ended up looking like the one in the pic.
 
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OP
R

ransil

Bronco Guru
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
Messages
8,127
Had to have a rear drive shaft rebuilt for a '77 F150 4x4 I had years ago and it came back from the shop looking like that. I think they called that coating Glide-coat or something like that. It was okay for a while but it started peeling and ended up looking like the one in the pic.

I looked it up and you are correct, look like neapco and spicer both use it.

" Most tube shafts have blue colored splines. That blue color is often referred to as glidecoat, which is a nylon coating that is used to prevent premature wear of the part."

I trimmed the blue off top of the splines and it helped, cleaned up the rock rash and I can get the in to about 1 " of the tube with no effort, gonna run it this weekend.
 
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