Out of nowhere, my jeep suddenly has a big slip when turning the steering wheel. It is frustrating because I was about to leave on a 6 hour drive and am not sure if I should now.

You can hear the the upper shaft turning against the rubber in the joint, until it finally catches on the metal tabs on both side and then it turns the wheels like normal. My questions are:

Is it safe to drive like this?

How do I fix it?

Note: The picture is not my own, but I found it on this forum and edited it. Red circle is where it is slipping in the rubber. Blue circle is the metal tab that rotates until it catches on the collar.

Thanks a lot for any help or input

 

Any help greatly appreciated... I think I'm just gonna take the trip and keep an eye on it if it starts to feel worse.

 

Ummm...I would not take that thing too far. I would replace it A.S.A.P. It is called an intermediate shaft.

 

Oddly enough, after going out and checking on it multiple times and it still slipping, the second I got in the jeep to actually take it for a test drive, it didn't slip at all. Not exactly sure what was up but it made the trip there and back and is still completely fine.

Thank you for letting me know the proper name for it, I couldn't figure it out. I'll do some more investigating this weekend

 

I have the same issue. My mechanic said the part isn't available from the factory anymore (if it was it would be 300 bucks), and not many people carry the slip joint. Anyone had any luck fixing the slip issue? My last resort is to just buy the whole shaft here:

http://www.quadratec.com/products/56113_04.htm

Any ideas?


-Andy