Ripped rear drive shaft boot on 2012
 

I put a 2.5 RK max travel kit and a 1.25 rough country body lift on last week just put my 37s on and was going to test it out for trimming. Didn't even get to flex it much at all maybe front tire 24 inches off and heard this horrible noise looked under the rear drive shaft hit the factory evap skid and ripped my boot on the drive shaft front seems good teraflex spacers and shimmed the skid down a bit. Anyone else rear drive shaft come close to the factory evap skid. put my aftermarket one on it seems much better will test it out tomorrow.

My rear boot has been gone for 18 months without issue :dontknow2: but I would like to drill and tap it too. Would or could the weight of the zerk put the shaft out of balance?

Thanks,

RT

Ok caster angle +4 that would correct drive line angle correct. So how would that help my drive shaft hitting the evap-skid. adjusting the arms would rotate the axle not move it from side to side. I am ordering a tatton or coast not sure yet heard great about both which ever is cheaper, for the front on the back im just going to replace the boot i don't need a rear drive shaft no need to spend 500 on something i don't need. It didn't rip that bad just put a few holes in it. I put my aftermarket evap skid on now its fine i just wanted to let everyone know so they can check clearance before they rip there's.

Drive shaft boot destrucion
 

I am running the 2.5" max travel from RockKrawler and have issues with the drive shaft contacting the evap canister skid on my 2012 4 door Rubicon. It only seems to happen if I am wheeling with the sway bar connected. But had to drive like that off Poison spider Mesa in Moab when my sway bar disconnect failed a few weeks ago. I am contacting at the rear of the drive shaft where the balancing weights are welded on the drive shaft up to the beginning of the silicone boot on the drive shaft. Completely destroyed the boot and put a few dents in the evap skid from the contact and torque. Not sure what this is caused from, might be something needs to be changed with the lift of the evap skid just needs to be moved when the Jeep is lifted, so much new on the 2012's.

A question: is this clearance issue just relative to the JKU's or has someone in a 2 dr. had the same issues?

I heard that terrible noise coming from the back during some high articulation a couple of weeks ago. Mopar 2" lift and the swaybar was connected. Thanks to this post I checked mine and yes, there's a small place on the evap skid that's been hit and rusty at the driveshaft weight and there looks to be some wear marks on the weight, and my boot near the weight for 3-4" shows abrasion marks, didn' tear but obviously hit the skid.

Looks like an aftermarket skid is the way to go (or modifying the stock one's bolt hole locations or trimming off the stock skid - looks like there's plenty of room to do that without hitting the cannister).

What aftermarket skid did you install and how has i worked. The poison spyder one says it gives more ground clearance. Not sure if it helps the interference since it looks like it's pretty close to the driveshaft as well.

guess another solution is an aftermarket drive shaft :what?: darn, that would mean a new front one to fix the exhaust clearance issue and a new rear one to fix this issue :eek2:

I have the 3.5" RK xfactor mid arm kit. I haven't done any significant wheeling with it yet, but I also have a rear adjustable trackbar instead of a bracket to help keep things aligned. I already replaced my front driveshaft with a Coast 1310 aftermarket. I hope that I don't need to purchase another driveshaft for the rear.

I'm not sure about the 2" Mopar lift, but is it possible that the rear trackbar bracket that comes in the 2.5" RK kit is not correctly centering the rear axle when the axle is moving up and down?

When I look under my 2012, there seems to be a lot of clearance between the rear driveshaft and the Evap skid. My axle would have to move several inches to one side before the driveshaft would hit. Even when the axle is at full droop on a hoist/lift, the axle may sway a few inches, but if I remember correctly, the sway is away from the Evap skid.

when i heard the terrible noise, i was making a left turn into a ravine and the rear was going over a mogul that was very off camber from the left ravine wall down to the center. i think the clash was due to the rear being off-camber and the weight of the jeep shifting the evap skid closer to the drive shaft. i did a lot of other high articulation moguls that weren't off camber and heard no noise.

the stress marks on the drive shaft boot look like i'd only need 1/2" or so more clearance between the stock drive shaft and the evap skid to keep this from happening.

thanks, i'll have to take a look at it tonight and take a picture and measurement. from memory, the clearance when standing in the garage wasn't much, don't believe i was several inches. that might be because your taller lift has the evap skid higher up in relation to your drive shaft than mine.

I just put a aftermarket skid on and its fine now but already ripped the boot. The factory one could be modified but its kind of light metal so i just replaced it.