Coog

I'm having a weird rumble/low pitched whine noise at around 30mph from my front axle. The noise is there pretty much all the time, it comes under throttle at 35mph+ and is also evident coasting down to a stop at maybe 15mph ish. The noise sounds like it's front diff to transfer case areas.

I pulled the driveshaft (between transfer case and diff) and it was all silent, noise gone - I'll be checking for slop on the yoke tomorrow but I want to check the driveshaft too.

Can you tell me how to test that the driveshaft is OK? There's some movement on the CV joint on the shaft (it's a '98 4.0 ZJ) so I think it might be fubared but I want to be sure. Should the CV style joint slide in/out, hinge, wobble about much? What about rotational play?

First time I've seen one of these so I'm not sure if it's working normally or it's broken lol

Thanks

jwpColfaxNC

NOTES to follow:
1. Currently ( Son Age 14 & Father ) rebuilding Jeep ZJ 93 Limited 5.2L for
First vehicle PLUS most important gives Son Hands on wrench work to
come to an appreciation how to maintain any Vehicle
On the Job Training / Experience
Critical if not more so than Book classroom Learning
Yes need both but without the DOING part its my viewpoint
a person doesnt get the Full Knowledge Transfer
*Anyway while we had her up on Jacks - Tires & Wheels on - We did the old fashion Wheel Test by rocking Tire top to bottom and side to side -- If you Feel any type of movement than in my humble viewpoint Wheel Bearing assembly going bad or is already gone
*Suggestion is to do your pricing searches and Purchase the Entire FRONT Wheel assembly rather than attempting to replace bearings at Home
In our case YES rocking movement in Driver Front -- rather than just replacing
one - best in my viewpoint to do in pairs so Purchased TWO Front wheel assemblies and installed -- After removal of wheel, calipers its a rather simple fix to unbolt the entire Wheel Hub and with PB Blaster and Puller remove, CLEAN all prior to inserting New
2. Front DriveSahft
Here again we replaced all U-Joints as well as rebuild the Double Cardan
We had 235K on parts so we figured rebuild all
Here again its a personal choice what to replace, but rather than chasing your tail so to speak replacing one part at a time, again being 235K on original parts its best to rebuild Entire Driveshaft
-Check out DennysDriveShaft.com
Has rebuild kits, U-joints etc ..
Or if you have the dollars Replace entire Front Driveshaft with one of his Custom built for your Jeep
*Hope this Helps

dave1123

I'm not so sure I like this guy, and I AM entitled to my opinion!

Methinks he talketh too much. Wants to spend ALL my money!

In partial answer to you're question, there should be NO rotational play in a CV joint. My 97 came with U-joints, could this be an upgrade on yours by a previous owner? IMO, high mileage, replace both.