What kind of vibrations are you guys seeing when there is a problem. I have a slight vibration in the gear shifter above 40mph. Up till now it's nothing I've been worried about, but this thread has me wondering.

Sorry to hijack a little here.

 

I'm at about 34,000 miles and still running the stock rear on an Unlimited almost since day one. I don't run with a front driveshaft on the street because of the issues being discussed in here. Sure wish they'd either alter the pinion angle a little or build these things with lock/unlock hubs like they used to.

These look like they might be priced to be a viable option to changing out the front-end for a completely new axle. rustysoffroad.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SAST-JK&Category_Code=AXL

But, as we know, if you continue to throw good money into the 44's, it will eventually get to a point that you should of just put a 60 in it to begin with. Problem solved with that.

 

Those spyntecs change the bolt pattern to 5x5.5, so you need to invest in new wheels/spacers also.

 

Man this thread is pretty informative.
Any recommendations on new driveshafts? Also, even if you go with the new shafts what are the chances that this could keep happening?

Thanks for all of the help guys!!!

 

yup, too many variables and keeping an eye on things is your best bet. of course, this should be the case with everything on your jeep.

driveline vibrations are speed sensitive and can usually be felt as an oscillating buzz and if it's really bad, it can be heard as well.

it's so frustrating that jeep did away with locking hubs. while this would work, it does change your bolt pattern and, it is pricey.

 

i've run je reel on my white jk, still run coast on my orange jk and now run a custom shaft that i had made from a local shop on my white. i have also installed teraflex shafts, re shafts and tom woods shafts in the past and, what i can tell you is that they are all good shafts but, i would recommend that whatever you get, to make sure you get replacement yokes and NOT use flanges or adapters. shafts like coast use spicer parts and come with replacement yokes and they will give you the best operating angles.

funny thing is, i have personally only seen this happen on rubicon t-cases. not that it can't happen on an x, sport or sahara t-case but, i have not seen or heard of it before. also, you need to know that a drive shaft is a lot like your wheels/tires and they do get balanced. if you wheel your jeep hard, bending it or even knocking off a weight isn't uncommon and both will cause your shaft (even a factory shaft) to vibrate. so long as you make sure to set your caster in a way that prevents vibrations, get it balanced again if it is vibrating and maintain it, you should be fine.

 

A while is relative. I twisted my stock front shaft at about 8k miles running a 6" lift and 35's however I am still running my stock rear shaft with no problems now at about 29k miles and obviously still on the 6" lift.

 

J reel has a shaft they have been testing that uses the cv from RCV, last I heard, the orange dome thing was not withstanding the heat. I think eventually they will fix this minor issue. At least I hope so. I think those that are wary like me to use the current aftermarket driveshafts out there, prolonging the stock by yanking it out when not needing 4wd is a viable option. It only takes a few minutes to take on and off, unfotunately not as fast as lockouts.

 

You actually can do this, use a single cardan driveshaft. However you have to be almost impossibly precise in making sure both u joints rotate in the same phase and cancel each others differentiation in speed out. Even after this, you may still develop vibrations.

 

Ah....bad memories