PatHenry

At this point you'll be looking for having the drive-shaft be "too tight" (aka - seized).

The double cardan should be pretty easy to move by hand - just be careful not to pinch your fingers as you move it.

What are you thinking to jack up the rear for? If you're just removing the front driveshaft you don't have to jack the jeep up at all - you take the straps off at the axle end (being careful to not lose the bolts, straps or the u-joint caps), then pull the shaft out of the axle side yoke. It may be tight, so you might have to wedge it a bit (this is where the careful not to let the caps fall off is important!) - then you remove the 4 bolts from the transfer case yoke (they're the same head size as the strap bolts, just a bit longer) and pull the shaft forward a bit and it will come off the yoke. There's no loose caps on that side to worry about. You could just disconnect the transfer case side if you're ok with less room when articulating the joint. In the event you want -more- room, you can jack up the front.

If you find you do need to replace the transfer case, then you'll probably want to jack the whole Jeep up a bit so you have room to work and get the transfer case clear of the Jeep and ground.

mcmopar

What I was referring to when I said "Jack up the rear", was to start the vehicle, less the front driveshaft, put it in gear and 4 wheel drive and listen to the transfer case. If it still makes the clunking noise, I will be sure it is the case, if not then it is in the drive shaft. I know to mark the mating parts, so they go back together the same way. If I find the double cardan to be the problem I would still feel better knowing the transfer case was good. Will it hurt anything to run the transfer case without the front driveshaft?

PatHenry

Ahhh, gotcha - yes just jack up the rear.

No problem running it without the driveshaft - I drove around for a couple weeks without mine while I was rebuilding it. LOL.

PatHenry

You could actually even remove the rear drive shaft as well and totally isolate the transfer case.
The rear shaft is just the straps at the rear axle then pulls straight off the rear output shaft.

mcmopar

Thanks again, will keep you posted on the results of these tests. Maybe do this tomorrow, don't know the timing yet , wifey might have other plans for me! Thanks a million!

mcmopar

Hello, PatHenry, I got the ok from wifey to work on the Cherokee, This is what I have done, removed the front drive shaft, PIA, I am able to move the joints freely maybe too freely. They are rusty/corroded but they move around. I ran the jeep while the rear was up and the transfer case was quiet, no clunking or any strange noise. I lowered the jeep and took it for a drive, no clunking at all. Could it be the front driveshaft even though the u-joints are flexing etc? I drove it a good mile and turned the wheel left and right and no clunk or banging at all. What ya think?

PatHenry

Well that's good news - it's certainly possible that the drive-shaft is bad.

The difficult part is that it's not necessarily that something isn't wrong in the front axle area since you're running it without the extra load.

What I would do is take a good look at the yokes - can you wiggle them up/down, side/side or in/out at all by hand?
If the yokes are solid then could you take a video of the movement of the drive shaft parts? The parts should move fully and smoothly throughout ther range of motion and broken in u-joints move very easily through that range of motion.

mcmopar

If the yokes are solid then could you take a video of the movement of the drive shaft parts? The parts should move fully and smoothly throughout ther range of motion and broken in u-joints move very easily through that range of motion.
Not sure what you are looking for here. Drive shaft is laying on the floor right now, what kind of a video are you talking about? After pulling the drive shaft and having the transfer case not making any noise and driving the Jeep and no clunking from the front end,or anywhere else, I kinda thought I had found the problem/issue. The yokes do not move up/down but do move or turn a small amount left to right,right to left.

PatHenry

You had mentioned the joints might be "too loose"... Can you hear any noise when you move the joints? Is it rough at all?

If you hold the front yoke on the driveshaft and twist the main section, do you have any play in the slip part of the shaft?

Were any of the bolts/straps loose?

I'm just thinking if it were me, I would want to be sure that I had a smoking gun for what's wrong. Like I said, the fact there's a reduced load on the attachment yokes can hide problems.

It would be nice if you had a friend with a Jeep that you could swap a "known good" driveshaft on there and be sure it's noise free with the shaft attached.
You can buy an off-brand driveshaft brand new for as low as 200, or there are many driveshafts on ebay for a low price, or you can rebuild your shaft if it's not play in the slip yoke part for about 100. I got non-greaseable parts from Denny's Driveshaft and was happy with the price and service and the parts were OEM Spicer.

mcmopar

When I first removed the driveshaft it felt like the u-joints, all of them, were tight and hard to move around. After moving them a few times they loosened up and are easy to move around. The straps on them were very tight with quite a bit of corrosion on the caps where they are exposed. No wiggle at the slip part and black grease pushes out at the u-joint area. Shaft itself is very rusty, surface area. I was looking for a smoking gun but not sure I have found one yet. I don't have anyone with a Cherokee to swap shafts with so I will get/ rebuild this one and see what happens. All I can say at this point is without the shaft installed the Jeep is very quiet. When the shaft was in it was clunking badly. If it was in the front u-joints wouldn't they still clunk when driving/rotating? And the front diff, wouldn't it still make some noise?
Don't give up on me yet, I really appreciate all your help and guidance.

Idunno

I think the place to look is the axle u-joints. When you state that the noise increases in volume when the steering wheel is turned then that is the clue to u-joint wear.

mcmopar

I am in the process of replacing all the u-joints on the front driveshaft. If that is not the issue then at least they will be new u-joints. No smoking gun yet but I won't give up, at least not yet. PatHenry, thanks for the info on where to get the joints and at a reasonable $ too.