Hi Everyone,

I have a 98 Sport with the AW-4.

I was getting quite a bit of vibration under the seat when at highway speeds so I checked everything out and discovered the front driveshaft has a lot of play in it.

Specifically the slip yoke on the front driveshaft, where the dust cap/gasket is has a gasket I now have a good amount of play, so I'm guessing that's the culprit here. It's a dana spicer unit.

I've found a lot of info on the rear driveshaft, and SYE kits, but hardly anything on the front. Is this something where I'm just looking at replacing the cap, the slip yoke itself, or is it something where I have to replace the entire driveshaft? Is it easy to get on and off or am I in for some headaches (someone told me the whole system is like a compressed spring that is a nightmare to get back together)

Thanks for the help!

Here's a pic of the part in question, the fitting on the end (which I believe is called a dust cap / press on seal) is where there is a good amount of gap between the gasket and the shaft.

"I was getting quite a bit of vibration under the seat when at highway speeds"

Can you feel it through the transfer case shifter? Unless a u-joint is dry/bound up it sounds more like it has to do with tire balance. (What's up with all the white splatter stuff?)

If you grab the slip joint on the shaft with your hand and yank it around, does it move? If so then yeah that is a problem and it will produce uncurable vibes

^ What, you don't get excited when you crawl under your jeep too?

That's actually lithium grease, buddy suggested I spray some on as cushion as a test to see if that dampened the noise/vibration at all; probably a fools errand.

Yes, I can wiggle it back and forth by hand, I'll have to check again but there's at least 1/8" of movement there and a definite gap between the rubber seal/gasket on the (dust cap?) and the shaft itself.

I can measure it or take a video if need be to provide more info, but what am I looking at as far as swapping it out? Is it the entire driveshaft, the entire slip yoke, or just the cap that needs to be swapped out? Also, is it pretty much plug and play or is it going to be a nightmare to get back in (require compression?)

Thanks again!

Yeah, sounds like the slip yoke is bad. I had the exact problem, gave me really bad vibes above 60. When I was looking at options to fix it I found that I would have to get the driveshaft rebuilt which required balancing and all that stuff which was too expensive for me. I just went to the junkyard and pulled one that seemed to be in good shape, greased it up good through the zerk fitting and she's all smooth now.

The rubber cap is just to hold grease in, and doesn't do anything for actual stability. The splined shafts are interference fit and if they are worn out (lack of maintenance) then they will develop wear and slop. Have to replace it

ehall, so is that a slip yoke replacement, or a whole DS replacement as mentioned above?

Is the whole thing compressed or does it just pop off and back on pretty easy?

I had this issue. Splines were bad on a jy shaft I pulled. Had bad vibes at 65mph. Rebuilt everything thinking it was just the shaft. I had to by a new DS. Jy shafts are a waste of time. To many are rusted. Ignored. Abused etc

It just pulls apart. You may need to pop the grease cap loose first. Make sure to make a mark on the two halves so you can line it back up correctly.

If the splines are chuffed and worn then you are looking at new driveshaft. Both pieces are available separately but the shaft is balanced as an assembled unit, so if you replace one or the other halves you are looking at a rebalance which is not cheap. Its usually cheaper to just buy another drive shaft than to buy the halves and a rebalance

Thanks everyone, appreciate the responses.

I have yet to pull it apart but I understand what's going on now, sounds like I'm probably looking at a new DS then; bummer, but should be a good project at least.

You can check ebay. I just got a DS from a junked XJ so I knew it was recently used. In my experience, I got screwed twice from 2 JY shafts. And to add.to shall, my last DS had no noticeable wear at the splines but they were no good giving me vibes. It feels good to have a proper working front shaft again. I don't feel like rewording that lol

I was looking at Tom Woods shafts actually, it's kind of hard to get a pricing without giving them a call (have to get measurements before I do that) but it sounded like somewhere between 250 and 300 for a brand new front driveshaft from them vs 3,4,5, 6 (!) from normal channels for a refurb or retrofit.

http://www.4xshaft.com/XJCherokee.asp - assuming this page isn't 10 years old that seems like a real steal compared to other outlets.


Do you remember what you paid for the JY shafts? If it's like 50 bucks it might be worth a drive and chance, otherwise I'll probably go the new or refurb route.

I would go with the Tom woods shaft. They are extremely high quality products and guaranteed to work.

Nope. If you looked at Tom's Wood then go there. I'll put it this way. It's 50 for a JY shaft. Plus rebuilding it plus your time. When all is said and done, you in more than half what a woods shaft is providing you get quality solid spicer joints