Busted up my front driveshaft pretty good. Well actually barely did anything at all. Just broke some bolts holding it to the transfercase.

I was towing a buddy home after he broke down wheeling that day. We were at the last stop sign with his house less than a block away, he decides it would be funny to lock up his brakes. I just throttle harder and start to pull him towards his house, then a loud clunk. Turns out my driveshaft broke free at the transfercase. Got over to his house and I looked under front end. Didnt look at driveshaft though. No bad sounds came from it so I assumed it was fine.

So Western Washington is flooding again pretty bad. I figure its a good time to check out my mud hole, since its overflowing with water. I start to go down and I my swampers filled up with mud in about five seconds. I locked it in and tried to move, only to get more spinning. Thought it was pretty sad I wasn't going anywhere in 4x4. It started clunking, so I decided I should figure it out before I did anything.

I THOUGHT it was my hub. Sounded like it, so I was going to turn the driveshaft with them locked in and see if it was locked. I quickly noticed it wasn't attached. Sad thing is, its been sitting on my crossmember for 4-5 days without me noticing.

Damn bolts arn't strong enough. :P I have to go pick up some new U-Joints tomorrow afternoon. Sadly i'm driving a two wheel drive truck. It sickens me really.

 

i hate to be the one to point this out, but to me it looks like the bolts came loose causing them to break... if they where tight they more than likely would not have broke.

 

hav24wheel has a very valid point. If the bolts remained tight, they would still be there. They are plenty strong when the clamping strength is not compromised by having them loose.Three of the 4 bolts are still in the yoke. Broken bolts would have left the threaded portion in the double cardan joint. If you are lucky the cardan joint is not ruined, though it does appear that the thing has not been serviced or cleaned in ages.
Gotta stay on top of things or they will fail. When was the last time you checked them for torque? Me thinks I might know the answer. Nobody ever does. Alright, almost nobody. These among other things under the truck are taken for granted. These joints and components take a beating, and are blamed for being weak, when they are simple neglected.

 

Yeah, it was retorqued and greased a month ago. Thats pretty much what I was thinking was that they came loose. None of them BROKE.. ( that I know of )

But no damage was done so its all good.

I dont CLEAN my truck. I envy your trucks ED but my truck looks better coated in mud. As for the underside, its probably never been cleaned. The transmission and engine are new though. :P

But I do maintain the stuff.

 

I was not picking on you man. I am just a real maintenance freak. I have (hate to admit) dropped d-shafts before because I failed to re-torqe fasteners and this is embarassing.
You should inspect the ball in the center of the cardan joint. When the things come apart the centers take a giant beating. Eventually they will vibrate and soon fail.
Glad it did not take out more than just some bolts.

 

although while you say you maintain it....removing mud from the underside is important....mud just hangin out underthere traps moisture and that leads to failed joints....rusted bolts...ect....

 

So wait. You were towing someone down a street in 4wd (pavement?). Clunk/bump/something went wrong. You leave it for a few days. Then go to the mudhole without checking anything?

I'm just busting your ball if its true. How often do you really check to see if the front DS is still attached?

 

i'm laughin a bit myself...

 

Yeah, everything was still in good shape. My buddy and I keep talking about you actually. Your replacement of a chromo. We envy you haha.

I looked under the front end, but not the driveshaft. I had it in 4x4 and drove it after I unhooked from him. It sounded fine. And the mud hole is at MY HOUSE.. like 50ft from my shop so I didn't think much of it. If I got stuck in the mud I could go fire up the skidder or excavator and have it out in 5 minutes. :P

Juuuust so you know so you know, there was snow and ice on the roads. Had to go like 10 miles and if I went over 25 I would fishtail, so I put it in 4x4 to make a safer drive.

I'm not really that into maintaining my truck. Its my beater. :P If I break anything big i'm throwing it out haha. When I say maintain, I mean i'll change the oil and grease stuff. I don't really do the full lineup of cap, rotor ect. And my gear oil will get changed.. when I put my locker in. :P

Right now i've been driving the F-350 as my daily driver. Wheeling on the weekends. Havn't delt with my 4x4 since friday haha.

 

Make up your mind man....

If you were in 4x4 that means your hubs were locked and driveshaft was spinning. If you broke your driveshaft but didnt realize it, you probably didnt unlock your hubs (thinking you were still in 4x4). Wouldnt you hear your driveshaft hitting everything in the undercarrige as its spun with your wheels....?? I know I would of..

Maybe its just me, but when anything clunks in know something broke. Trucks wont make noises like that if everything is ok. I will inspect my truck until I find what broke, not going 4-5 days without caring. I guess you learn the hard way sometimes huh??

 

Read what I posted man.

I maintain stuff, just not EVERYTHING.

I'm not gonna go change my gear oil, rarely service the entire engine.

I'm not really into preventive maintence. I replace what I break. Which really I don't break much.

As I said, its my daily driver too. If I drove 4-5 days and I didn't lose a tire i'm fine. I don't kick it in 4x4 unless I need it. And before I need it I always make sure it works. Why don't we just consider this little adventure my way of checking it out eh? It was on my property. 50 feet from my shop. Wouldn't be difficult.

Its all back together. Everything works. No clunking. So quit trying to be a dick Tinian.

 

Ill be a dick if I want to be.
I just think its funny how its a DD but you dont bother to do anything to prevent anything from going wrong. And you seem to be proud of it.

You will be wishing you changed that gear oil when your rear bearings go out...like mine just did. Roughly $150, not including carrier bearings compared to 30 minutes of labor and $15 of gear oil.

 

My gear oil isn't TERRIBLE its just not something i'm gonna change. As soon as I sell my ATV i'm buying a powertrax and some other random things for the truck so i'm changing it then. (Kind of have to.) :P

Yes. I am damn proud of it. It may be my DD but I don't rely on it. If it breaks, I can drive something else.

 

Replacing what you break isn't maintenance at all... maintenance means servicing (maintaining) something on a regular basis. So if you fail to grease your U-joints and they break/fail and you install new ones, that's simply replacement, NOT maintenance.

I'll go ahead and step out on a limb and say you aren't very good about any type of maintenance. But hey, that's just a shot in the dark. Well, not really- judging by what you've said.

X-ray vision?

I am busting your ***** because I absolutely hate having to wait behind broken rigs or having to pull someone out because their lazy 4$$ couldn't grease a simple U-joint. or they didn't notice that they had a loose pinion nut. Private land wheeling included. That's where I wheel too.

 

I give my engine an oil change.
I DON'T give my axle an oil change.

I pulled the plug on it and checked out my gear oil level and the gear oil didn't look bad. No X-Ray vision needed my best friend.....ps...wanna hang out this weekend??? (I guess i shouldn't have called anyone a name that was against the site guidelines....) . As i've said, how many times already, I DO grease my truck. Its one of the few things I DO to maintain it.

I wheel with friends, if someone breaks then the friend is responsible for towing the other one out, and I have never been the one being towed out. Luck? Maybe. Point being i've never had problems yet!

...you'd better not be wheeling on my land.


Stop picking bits and pieces out of my posts because i've already addressed most of these quotes and its just beginning to become tiresome.