Currently up in the air about my Cherokee. 94 automatic, 4WD. Upon startup, during idle, I hear what sounds like a percolator (old coffee pot). When I put it in gear (reverse or drive) there is a slight hesitation followed by an soft but audible "thud". It's not by any means harsh or hard. When I start to move, there is a single "pop" sound coming from underneath. This happens in reverse and drive. When I come to a stop, it pops again and the rear end feels like it drops a few inches. Around 25MPH and 45MPH I get a slight vibration and a faint grumbling sound that lasts for a few MPH then goes away. I also have about .5 inches of play when turning my front driveshaft by hand, and it takes very little effort. My research lead me to believe that it was possibly the u-joints on my front driveshaft going out. A repair shop up the road had it for about an hour...driving it, looking underneath, etc...they said my u-joints were perfectly fine...they could not pinpoint the exact problem but referred me to a transmission shop thinking its either the transmission or the transfer case. I've been searching these forums all day and night and haven't really found much that matches my symptoms exactly...does anyone have any ideas? The 4.0 has 100k on it, body has 170k.

 

My '01 XJ does the same thing. I have been looing into it and there are possibly a couple things that could be going on. The first most probable cause is the slip yoke at the back of the transfer case. I guess that the brass sleeve in the transfer case and the splined shaft on the front of the rear drive shaft can either have exsesive play or they just need to be greased. Another thing that maybe could be either contributing to the previous problem or be your only problem all together is the rear brake pads are getting a little grabby, the fix for that is to put a small chamfer on the leading edge of the brake pad itself. I am going to start with the slip yoke on my car first and see what happens. I will let you know what I find.

 

That sounds great...I look forward to hearing the results.

 

Any update on your situation?

 

Not yet, I have't had the time. I hope to get at it this week. I did go out on one of the trails around my house last night, for a quick cruise and what ever I did made it worse. It was wet out there with some mud. So, I am thinking maybe the grease that was there in the slip yoke is now gone do to the water on the trail, possibly. I will let you know what happens.

 

So I was finally able to get out there to work on my rig today. I pulled the driveshaft, inspected it, greased the slip yoke and bolted it back together. As far as my car is concerned, that was the fix. The clunk, squatting and vibration under the floorboard that I was experiancing when comming to and at a stop has all but dissapeared. Not to mention, it rides smoother now, who would have though that the slip yoke was binding that bad. If I were you I would give it a try billfrank85.