So I am at the lake, and hear the sound of something dragging as I drove slow around the campground. My brother gets out to check and says it's my rear u-joint at the back of the driveshaft. Makes a grind.

I just towed my boat up here, I'm leaving it, but is it safe to drive down the interstate? I have no way of fixing it here I need to make it home to drop it off at the shop as I am working shifts for the next 4days. I notice no differemce other than the noise

 

Take out the rear ds and drive it back in front wheel drive (4 hi)

 

i wouldnt take it on the highway, could grenade that u joint

 

Won't lie there no fun when they break.

 

another option is have someone bring you a new u-joint, tool kit, and a harbor freight ball joint tool
here's a write up on how to replace it.
http://www.stu-offroad.com/axle/ujoint1/u-joint-1.htm

 

I wouldn't drive it in its current state. Look and see why it's making the noise. There are four small 8mm bolts holding the drive shaft and U joint to the rear differential. The four bolts hold the U joint using two U shaped straps.

If the sound is coming from the U joint, the U joint itself may be broken or a bolt or strap may have failed.

If you drive it, it may fail completely and all of a sudden, your driveshaft flies off. It's not held in towards the front by anything substantial. You could wreck your tranny which would obviously suck.

If its not very far a drive, I would follow the above posters advice and remove the drive shaft and drive it back in front wheel drive. All you need is an 8mm extended socket ratchet. It can be pretty rusted up so some PB blaster or liquid wrench may help. Some love taps with a hammer too.

 

Did you get it taken care of?

 

Not knowing much about Jeeps at all I had my rear drive shaft break on a freeway at 55mph! No fun. No fun at all. I drove it home in Front wheel drive.

 

I dropped the rear shaft and drove home in FWD on the back roads. What a ride. Wow.

I should drop it off at the shop today. I have the ujoints just no the time to fix them. Story of life huh?

 

I think you're kinda lucky, about 6 months ago I replaced both u-joints on the rear shaft (its better if you do both at the same time). The caps on one side had been chewed through and the straps were toast, and I had been driving it like that for about a year or so luckily when I moved I put it on a trailer.

 

Whoa.

Yeah doing both at the same time. I'm glad it didn't grenade while in was towing the boat up. Really shocked me how dry it was and the bearings were really worn but not like that!