Drive shaft fell off while driving.

Earlier today I had the pleasant surprise of having my drive shaft disconnect from my rear diff. Good news I was in a neighborhood and it only did minimal damage. Ended up taking the drive shaft off and driving back home in 4 high (gotta love 4WD). Anyways like I dumbass I didn’t mark where the alignment as it was. Am I fucked? Should I just invest in a new drive shaft? Also there is some damage on it, I included pics. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Well, obviously you need a new u-joint and probably mounting yoke. Otherwise I wouldn't install it just like that because it'll shake and vibrate.

I'd take it to a driveline shop and see what they say. If they can replace your ujoints and balance it back then sure but, there is a fairly decent chance they say it can't be salvaged and it's scrap metal now

 

DriveshaftPro all day baby. They’ll get you squared away in no time. Cheers!

 

Those U-joints look pretty dry. I would replace all of them with grease fittings so you can squirt a few pumps of NGLI #2 to keep them going. I don't think they had greaseable on the 07 so you may have to go aftermarket.

-J

 

If you didn’t hear and feel that ujoint failing you won’t notice a difference if it isn’t put back the way it was

that said, just replace the driveshaft, it’s beat pretty bad

 

Suprise? That's hard to believe. That joint must've been clanking and squeaking like hell for months before it finally broke off. That's sketchy af

 

The you joint in OPs picture looks like it has a place for a grease fitting. But some one stuck a flat head screw in place of the fitting. Ehhhhhh……..?

Take a look at the 3rd picture.

 

"You been greasing the driveshaft zerks?"

"Naw bro, I did the delete"

 

I am guessing the op is not the first owner

 

That's perfectly acceptable when you're working in the shade of a tree

 

In those pictures on each side of the u joints there's a plastic cap... guess it's to keep dust/dirt out. looks like one side it intact/the other is in pieces. The caps have a tiny hole for grease to escape... had one break years ago due to pumping grease in too fast. Ended up wrapping self healing tape around it and rolling it to form a gasket... has been on there for around 12 years without issues (was done without taking anything apart.)

 

That’s not an OE joint.
So it’s been replace once before.
OE fittings are on the cap.

​

 

I never seen a joint with a hole in it for grease to escape. All the ones I’ve seen you pump until greasy comes out between the cap and joint. Where the needle bearings are. Comes out around the rubber cap seal.

I am not saying you are wrong. I’ve just never seen the style you are talking about. ?

 

Although it doesn't look like it, and it definitely does look someone just blocked it off, there are grease fittings with flathead heads, that use a needle tipped grease gun. This doesn't look like that though; strange for sure.

 

I’ve heard of those. But never run into them myself. Seems like my brother had to buy a special end or kit. I can’t remember what it was on. But my grease gun would work for him.

 

I think you might find them on some Moog parts, but this really doesn't look like what I'm thinking of.

 

Replace the u-joint. Given that one was allowed to catastrophically fail, your other joints may need to be replaced too.

https://www.drivetrainamerica.com/5-1330-1x-dana-spicer-driveshaft-u-joint-1330-grease-zerk-in-cap/

Grind down the high spots in the yoke, look for cracks or signs of impending failure.

Might also need to replace the carrier bearing.

https://www.drivetrainamerica.com/s...ma-driveshaft-center-support-carrier-bearing/

Not too hard to replace everything in an afternoon if you have the tools.

 

My guess is zerk probably broke off at some point, OP or shop put a plug in to keep debris out. I guess you could still grease it through the plug hole, but seems real messy; which may explain why it was probably never greased after that, ultimately failing.

 

I'm guessing what happened is the zirk fitting on the aftermarket joint was one of those right angle ones and it was too large and getting in the way, so they took it off and plugged the hole

 

You don’t need it.
As long as it makes it to the end of the driveway or out of the parking lot.