I've been looking at lifts for my 2dr JK, one thing that erks me is the cost of replacing the shafts to accomodate the size lifts that I'm looking at (3-4 inch). Back in the day.... I had a hot rod that twisted a shaft, so I went to a drive shaft shop and they cut the old yokes off and welded them to the new tubing, balanced it, tossed in new ujoints, $85 dollars later I drove off (labor, joints, tubing). Granted, CV shafts should be more along with other types etc but the set of JE Reels I was looking at run $649 seems awfully high.

I'm not trying to offend any sponsors, I love the support and most all of the products available today for the JK but the driveshafts seem so high priced for what they are. I'll admit that I'm driveshaft stupid so if any have some enlightenment for me I'll take it. Is there some kind of wicked complicated R&D that goes into these things that I don't know about?

 

I cheaped out and went with a 1310 rear. Good enough for my 35's With 20% off from 4 Wheel parts, it was only $340 shipped.

 

I also cheaped out and managed to find a brand new 1310 RE rear shaft on eBay for $185 shipped, including the flange and hardware!

Look around, there are deals out there

 

I got TF front and rear driveshafts - they are 1310s, and should hold up just fine. I think 1350s are just unnecessary.

 

Everything for the JK is expensive. As a new model we pay for R&D expenses as well as some padding added by the manufacturers.

There's nothing inherently special about our drive shafts. For that size lift they just need to be longer. I have no experience with drive line shops, but if they can lengthen yours without sacrificing strength then why not?

I welcomed going to the stronger shafts without the damage prone boots on the stock shafts.

 

how are those D/S's working. i was looking at them too.

 

The drive shaft I bought off eBay is a Rubicon Express for the rear that someone ordered and never used. I still haven't ordered the front DS yet. Some other people on the forum have used the eBay shafts from Tratton and say that they are pretty good. I still need to save up a little to get my front DS.

 

How about on the rear drive shaft, for climbing and tight areas where you're really needing the torque?

 

My stock shaft never broke - and while I was lucky that it didn't, the 1310s are much beefier.

The way I look at it - with this new setup, if something is going to break, its going to be a ujoint. And not the shaft or spline. I'm afraid with a 1350 its so strong that it might transfer the power somewhere that is much more expensive to fix. At least if a ujoint breaks its a couple bolts, new ujoint, maybe 20 minutes, and I'm on my way.

I haven't put the 1310 to the test yet, but I think it'll serve my purposes well.

 

As it has been already said here, the rear drive shaft is really needed after a 3-4'' lift, the angle that this lift will set to the OE drive shaft is definitely out of the working spec. Even if you still can run your rig without replacing the rear d/s, it is not clear how long you will run without problems.

Regarding after market d/s a 1310 CV is just fine and less expensive that the one you mention (might be the 1350 CV).