I had to replace my rzeppa joint in the Jeep after our trip to Windrock. I have a 3.5" lift and am running 37" tires. I've done a few obstacle events, and ran the trains at Windrock now. After the 4th day I heard a faint clicking noise in 4wd. I looked under the jeep and was able to hear it coming from the front of the transfer case. I looked around, and saw fresh grease on the tunnel above the joint. Knowing that I was going to need a new drive shaft, I loaded my jeep back up and came back to Florida. I was going to order a drive shaft, but as I had a bunch of other maintenance on other stuff and would have had to wait a couple months to drive the jeep, I figured I would get the Teraflex high angle rzeppa kit, put it on, and then in fall I'll order a drive shaft before I do any off roading other than fire roads.

The kit came and I put it on. It took me like 2 hours to really feel good about all the grease in the joint and bending it all around to get it everywhere. I put it back on, use my handy band clamp tool, and afterward I'm looking at the boot on the shaft. I see that the inside is filthy, because one end of the boot came off, and was kind of flopping there. There was mud grease, ugh, it was disgusting. So excited to play with the new band tool and extra bands, I pulled the driveshaft apart, cleaning the inside and outside of the shaft coupling area, lubing it all back up, and that's when it hit me. I forgot to put a darn sight mark on both sides of the shaft.

How screwed am I? I have this weird yellow dot at both ends of the shaft. Looks about an inch in diameter. Any chance of getting lucky and that being the timing mark? What can I do to check the balance of the shaft? Thanks in advance!

 

I doubt there is any balance issue. Parts like that are made very concentric.

 

That rzeppa is classified as constant velocity so there should be no clocking issues.

 

I think he’s talking about the two part drive shaft vs the joint. If you’re unsure, take it to a machine shop and they can balance it for under $50. I would want to do that for peace of mind if I wasn’t sure about getting the drive shaft put together the same. They’re balanced as an assembly so it’s important to put it together the same.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies. Yes, I am concerned about the driveshaft. I am sure the rzeppa is fine. But the driveshaft was taken apart and I have no idea what position it was balanced in. Now that its been off, it's not like it's a yoke where it's one of two positions, it could basically be any of 25 or so.