I was out and saw the local auto parts store had a rental ball joint press so decided to tackle the front driveshaft. Not too bad to get it out. The front driveshaft ujoints actually looked really good. I believe these are original. I've owned the jeep since new and didn't keep great records early on. I use fuelly to keep track now, but I still have to look at my history since I have 3 old Jeeps. I have never had the front drive shaft down on any of the Jeeps come to think of it (I'll have to check my 95 YJ).
I looked in the FSM about lubricating the front yoke socket ball (As named int he diagram). The FSM of course says everything is sealed and good for the life of the vehicle. There is not a grease service port so I was thinking of working grease and moving it around. The socket ball retainer (part #3) isn't real pliable, but I don't see that part available separately from the entire drivesahft.
A balljoint/ujoint installer and an air ratchet makes quick work. Will get the front back together tomorrow. I wanted to do some research on that front yoke socket ball.

 

Missed the question on this one. I believe there was a warning. Wife said she was hearing "some noise" sometimes when driving. The real moral of the story is anything that has grease will eventually need new grease or replaced.

 

Well son of bi*ch. I was replacing the unjoints on the rear part of the front drive shaft. I could not for the life of me get the end ujoint in (the one that is adjacent to that ball socket). The ball socket piece was just sticking out oo far. I tapped it with a mallet and wood block and thought I had it. It still wasn't lining up. I pulled it back apart and saw that the ball socket stayed on the drive shaft end. I gave up. Just going to order a new front driveshaft and be done with this. I'm thinking that piece was never supposed to have come off in the first place. There is a tin hole in the flat end of that joint where I squeezed some grease in with a needle. If that part is not supposed to come apart then that is a non serviceable part.
While I was out in the cold and greasing everything, I did check my 95 and it doe snot look l ever replaced the front ujonts on that either. Regular ujoints are a piece of cake. No pics today sine my gloves and me had grease everywhere. New rear shaft is supposed to be here tomorrow. That should be a real quick replacement since all the ujoint are already installed and I got new strap/bolt kits and some orange thread locker.

 

Found a youtube JBleepinJeep video of servicing the cardan socket joint. . Probably a good thing I couldn't get it back together and getting a replacement. I did a search and found some parts suppliers for the double cardan joint. For the price, jsut doesn't seem worth it to mess with it. Maybe will try a repalcement on the 98 I have now that I know what I'm up against. https://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/c45...aft_parts.html

 

Well,
I was just about to tell you It's a double cardan joint.
It is completely serviceable... It's done all the time.
Unfortunately, You didn't do it correctly.

I did mine a few months ago.

 

For future reference, found the part. I definteiyl should have done more homework on this before jumping in.

 

Got the replacement drive shaft and had it in and going in ~30 minutes. The rear ujoint was definitely on it's last legs too. I put one asode to take a picture, but must have tossed it when I was cleaning up. It was cold so di d not want to spend extra time in the garage. Going to tackle the 98 XJ this weekend. I can only imagine what those ujoints look like. Will be painful putting a crusty driveshaft back in, but I can live with it.
The full carnage on the front ujoint on the rear driveshaft was pretty impressive.

 

Heh, that'll buff right out

 

I'm looking forward to the Ball joint installation pics.

 

Ball joints were done awhile ago when I did the OME lift. The entire suspension was done. Used poly bushings on this one and rubber on the 98. No particular reason. The ball joint press is super useful for replacing bushings in the control arms and to get the bushings into the leaf springs. This weekend will be ujoints for the 98 XJ and my 95 YJ. I picked up the 98 in 2017 and went through a lot on that one. Same 2.5" OME lift, replacement engine. just never touched the ujoints. Spicer cardan joint is coming today. So will most likely just replace that on the 99 front driveshaft and use the new Dorman on on the 98 just to make my life simpler.

 

Hate to say this but if you never greased the primary driveshaft u-joints...what about the front axle shafts that drive the front wheels? With that said...most stock u-joints driveshaft and axle have no grease fittings. They are usually good for about 150K. Less mileage with a lift or abuse. All mine are now greaseable and give them all a good squirt once a month or so

 

The front axle ujoints were replaced quite awhile ago. As for getting grease....great question. I did some of these things when I was first learning Jeep maintenance. I will definitely be checking those. Those probably need replaced on the 98 too. And I don't think I ever did them on my 95 YJ either.
And in the WTF category. I got the spicer socket yoke assembly. Came in a box, not wrapped in plastic. I took it out and not sure I actually trust the grimy look where it is greased. Had these nice hairs on it too. I'm not sure I want to put this on. I could clean it and grease it, but what's the point of buying a new one at that point.

 

Where did you buy that?

was it in a Spicer box? That should have had a cardboard or plastic sleeve to hold that spring in the middle. (for shipping)
I would NOT be happy with that part.

 

Bought from . Came in a Spicer box. Really hard to believe spicer would package it this way. The pictures I have seen typically have a plug in the end to at least hold the needle bearings in. Sealing in plastic seems like a must for something like this. Definitely going back to Amazon, just not sure I want to try another one from there. Makes me wonder if this was a return somehow.

 

And for something completely different. I do a lot of work with AI. The useless yahoo email summary of this thread is: "You've made progress on replacing the ujoint on your 99 Cherokee's rear driveshaft, with cfaber expressing relief that the job will be manageable."

Similar to running DeepSeek smal model and asking about good money laundering schemes and it responds talking about how to wash dirty bills.