I'm in the middle of replacing my rear u joints and I was cleaning up the yoke that comes out of the transfer case when I realized that there's a spot that looks like one tooth is missing. I can't tell for sure if there was supposed to be one there or not because there doesn't seem to be any remnant of the tooth but one spot has a groove that is double wide...

Can anyone tell me if this is normal? I tried to check the TC output shaft for a similar double wide tooth but I didn't see one, though i'll admit I haven't looked very well.

I'm waiting for my camera to charge but when it does I'll post a picture of the tooth in question.

The vehicle is a 96 Cherokee but I'm not sure of the TC model.

Thanks,

hotrod

 

That's normal, the key spline is there so the drive shaft is mounted in the correct orientation.

 

okay good, it didn't look like a failure since it's pretty clear there never was a tooth there but I just wanted to check.

How difficult to move should new u joints be? I installed the one on the diff end of my driveshaft and i have a pretty hard time rotating it up and down... it went in a bit tough but other than that it seemed fine...

I'm wondering if something is wrong or if I'm just not used to how stiff new ones are.