Alright, so I bet it's been covered before, but after some research, I couldn't find the answer that pertains to my case specifically.

My vehicle specifically: I've got a 1996 XJ with the AW4 transmission and the 242J transfer case with no lift or slip yoke eliminator, bone stock.

My transfercase broke and I had to remove everything in order to fix it. While disassembling it, I saw the front driveshaft was heavier, had a grease point, and is adjustable.

Just out of curiosity, will this work in the rear if I put the spline adapter on it from the rear shaft? The front shaft adjusts in length so it can be the right length no problem, I'm mainly asking if the yokes are the same, and if it will handle taking the place of the rear driveshaft.

Some may ask why I would ever even question this. You're absolutely right, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But if I were wheeling and broke the rear shaft, I could possibly pull the front and put it in the rear and limp home, or simply carry a third. I'm mainly just asking if it will mount, and take the torque of being in the rear.

Thanks!

 

That is what a SYE does. You could do an IRO hack n tap for this.

 

Yes so I was trying to avoid buying that. Juat curious if it's possible without

 

it will handle the torque. not sure if you can just swap the adapter onto it though. i guess you will have to try some of this out in the driveway but i bet at a minimum, it would vibrate the heck of stuff since it won't be balanced with the other part on it

 

The top shaft is the rear, and the bottom is the front.

Essentially, I think it would work if I removed the double knuckle on the front shaft, and replaced it with the rear output spline adapter.

 

.
I don't think vibration will be an issue as it should already be balanced. If everything is the same size and is able to be swapped, I think the failure point would be the adjustable part of the front shaft, and it's also thinner. But it feels solid compared the the stocky bulky rear shaft. So unsure if it would be stronger or not.

But if everything is good, then this would be an easy mod for a cheap wheeler. It is a thinner shaft so you would have better ground clearance, and it's nearly hot-swappable with the other shaft in the case of an emergency.

 

So you'll end up with two slip joints in the rear shaft. Not sure how that would work out.

 

You can't really do this. As pointed out, you would nave two slip joints. Second, you will have to tip the pinion up so the pinion points straight at the tcase tail shaft

 

Give it whirl. Only issue i see is it might be too long

 

Not sure where the miscommunication is, but there will only be one slip joint

 

I know it's a bad edit, but something like this.

As far as the previous comments about the multiple slip yokes, are you talking about the one built into the shaft? If so then I'm not worried about it coming apart or anything because the shaft would be nearly compressed in order to fit in the rear, so it would have the whole length to travel before it came apart. Anyone's thoughts?

 

It will slip in the tcase splines and splines on the drive shaft.

I say try it. If something funky happens on test drive do something else.

Ive been making my own driveshafts. Am finding factory shafts arent that true my front shaft is stock and is turning .030 out of round.
my rear shaft i did has .008 of run out and doesnt need any weights. I got the front shafton my Cummins slightly tighter and also run no weights

What im saying is try it i dont think youl gain much bu have done stuff many on this forumn said woukdnt work and sometimes they were right but often they were wrong

The process trying different things and the experiences and information gathered are as valuable if not more valuable than the final outcome wether that outcome is amazing or nah.



This did not get built by doing it how everyone else does it. This buggy is defining offroad technology
https://youtu.be/oAFOFvB_oVw
alot of my suspension research is just wayching rock bouncer vids. You can see a wide range of designs and see how they perform

 

The main body of the shaft will be "floating" between the two slip joints. He could give it try. Be interesting to hear the results.

"Am finding factory shafts aren't that true my front shaft is stock and is turning .030 out of round."
That's the reason I went with a custom shaft when I ordered the SYE. Didn't know what I'd run in to if trying to use an OEM front one for the rear.

 

I would assume woods, adams and local driveline shops are putting more effort into shafts compared to the oem that may be going with the cheapest bidder that slaps yokes on a tube and glues weights on to make up for untrueness.
there shouldn't be any issue running front in the rear as it spins 100% of time so shouldnt have to meet any less requirements compared to the rear shaft

Some where i read that shafts are built with thin wall tube so they mask slight ujoint vibrations by flexing.
The shafts ive cut apart have all had cardboard sleeves inside the tube. I dont know if this is for vibrations or noise.
No idea of what i read about thin wall is true. I do know Adam's doesnt want to go thicker than 1/8 wall.
I've been doing 1/4"wall shafts. The jeep will ripart or a weld will fail before they bend

 

That's for all of the responses! There's a lot of good info here. I never planned on actually doing it as both of my shafts are fine and I don't go wheeling often. It was more of a theoretical question.