Drive shaft balancing

[ccoston]

I am getting pretty noticeable vibrations at about 40 mph and up when I am running my front drive shaft in my 98 ZJ. I want to take it to a shop to get balanced and was wondering who you guys suggest locally. Not sure if Richard at G&G does balancing, but if you do, please chime in. I'd rather take it to you and give my business to you. The only shop I have been to (just to buy parts) is Performance Industries, and they specialize in drivelines. Should I just stick with them? Or does anyone have any better suggestions?

[REDxj5150]

PI balanced my rear and it's pretty good (although my front needs to be done). It was $80 OTD, but if you're having vibes at 40 it sounds like a U-joint might be going bad. When mine was not balanced the vibes started around 65-70 (still do in the front). If they do need replacing it would be best to get spicer and not go for any off beat brands (autozone, O'reilly's, etc.) I went that route a few times and ended up replacing them every 7-10k miles. I've been on the same U-joints now for 15k miles. I grease them after every offroading trip.

[t_long927]

[quote="REDxj5150"]PI balanced my rear and it's pretty good (although my front needs to be done). It was $80 OTD, but if you're having vibes at 40 it sounds like a U-joint might be going bad. When mine was not balanced the vibes started around 65-70 (still do in the front). If they do need replacing it would be best to get spicer and not go for any off beat brands (autozone, O'reilly's, etc.) I went that route a few times and ended up replacing them every 7-10k miles. I've been on the same U-joints now for 15k miles. I grease them after every offroading trip.[/quote]


I agree.. I had the same problem. Swapped out the front and rear u joints and that solved the problem... Plus they are only 10 bucks at votozone... It's worth just swapping them out first and see if that does it..

[ccoston]

I previously replaced all the u joints on the driveshaft as well as the centering bearing, and it hasn't been driven on since that was done. The Jeep came without a front driveshaft when I bought it broken down, so I found one from a dismantler and tried to rebuild it myself. Maybe I did something wrong. Dropping the shaft at Performance this afternoon. Hopefully that's all that is wrong and nothing major.

[Goatman]

We send all our drivelines to Performance Industries. We also buy some new drivelines from J.E.Reel (JK stuff), but mostly we use PI. I assume you already drove it with the suspected driveline removed to verify the problem is driveline related? It could also be pinion angle related.

[ccoston]

[quote="Goatman"]We send all our drivelines to Performance Industries. We also buy some new drivelines from J.E.Reel (JK stuff), but mostly we use PI. I assume you already drove it with the suspected driveline removed to verify the problem is driveline related? It could also be pinion angle related.[/quote]

Yes, I've been driving it without the driveshaft for a while now. The problem only exists when the front driveshaft is in. Performance said that the u joints seem fine but they are going to balance it because it wasn't balanced after the driveshaft was rebuilt last (still had factory weights or something of that nature). Not sure about pinion angle. Tony at 4WP has been under it and did a front end alignment for me (with the driveshaft out though), and he didn't say anything about possible pinion angle issues. Would I be seeing a possible issue at 3.5" of lift on short arms and a double cardan driveshaft?

I will have the shaft back from Performance tomorrow morning. I'll bolt it up and check angles as well as I can. Hopefully the balance fixed things, but we'll see.

[ccoston]

The driveshaft is bent and has to be repaired is what they told me today. Not happy that Higgins sold me it to me that way.

[Goatman]

[quote="ccoston"]The driveshaft is bent and has to be repaired is what they told me today. Not happy that Higgins sold me it to me that way.[/quote]


Could be hard to tell without spinning up the shaft on the lathe.

[Zak.Taylor]

Watch those guys at performance. I have taken 3 shafts to them and each time they tried to convince me to have them build one from scratch for 400 or more dollars

[munepit]

I have a front stock shaft that I need to get a long slip yoke installed on it. I will be taking it there to get a quote on Monday. I will use my current front shaft as a spare.

We will see what they quote me. They did a good job on my rear though.

[ccoston]

Got the shaft back today and they did a good job on it. I installed it and everything is good now. Check one more issue off the list, now only a couple more and I'll be done.

[Dirty LJ]

Sweet!

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[t_long927]

You ought to take it back to higgins. they have a 90 day warranty... they also pay labor if a shop installed a bad part..

[TheBigDogg]

[quote="munepit"]I have a front stock shaft that I need to get a long slip yoke installed on it. I will be taking it there to get a quote on Monday. I will use my current front shaft as a spare.

We will see what they quote me. They did a good job on my rear though.[/quote]
Try PTO sales, but go around the side and go to their drive shaft shop, see Darrell