Was driving a rough road full of rocks and dips, heard noise stopped and found the caps had come off of the front right axle universal. Check out the picture. Dealer fixed it but said that it was caused by rock crawling which I do a lot of. I find it hard to believe that rock crawling caused this to happen.

 

I dont rock crawl and it happened to me. dealership replaced the inner and outter shafts and replaced the same on the other side just to be sure

 

Inspection of the front u-joints and weldments on the front and rear axle are standard procedure for me at every oil change.

Lots of posts in the past regarding caps coming out on the front axle u-joints and broken rubi front axles.

 

Got some answers from a front end designer today and he said that the new jeep rubies have larger u joints on the front axles. The problem is that when they went with larger u joints because of space they had to keep the same size straps that hold the u joints in. Problem with 35" tires much more stress is placed on the joint so the small straps stretch and the caps fall out. Solution smaller u joints and larger straps works better.

 

what are these straps you talk about the caps are held in via clips

 

I think sonja419 is talking about the size of the axle yoke ends.

There are a couple of fixes I've seen on other boards to remedy this.
One is the more extreme, but easier to implement idea of welding the caps to the axle yoke with a couple of tack welds
The more elegant route is to use full circle snap rings to install the u-joint cap. It usually requires a little grinding of the axle to make clearence for the snap ring all around, and its a PITA to get the snap ring on, but its supposed to keep the cap from "walking" out the hole under pressure.
Tom