My front shaft failed at 7,000mi give or take with the Eibach springs installed. The boot at the transfer case failed and spit all the grease out. This was noted by a bit of a harmonic while driving at higher speeds. The harmonic changed over the course of about 100mi or so. Just coincidence I happened to get some grease on my hand while looking at something else and shined a flash light up at the joint. The boot failed significantly and left bits and pieces floating around in the front and back of the joint. As well, without enough grease the joint started to prematurely wear and is fairly loose now.
I was and still will look at other shaft options like a Double Double Cardan and have done this on rovers in the past. But for now I just replaced the joint itself. Currently Agile Off-road offers a replacement joint that is effectively identical to the factory joint. If you pay attention you will find that this joint is very common and conversion adapters for standard Ujoints are a dime a dozen in the off-road world.
Anyways, this allows you to salvage the shaft and just replace the joint. Agiles kit is about $185. This includes everything you need. I would buy at least one kit and keep it in your truck as a spare regardless of if you lift the truck or not. Install is easy enough if you have the right tools. The back half of the stock joint is crimped on, so that's a bit of a road block if you are on the side of the road, but if you have a grinder you can cut the dome off the back to access the clip. You will be tossing the cap anyways. As well I used my press to remove the joint but you can do it with a decent hammer and a bit of frustration.
Having issue uploading a couple other pics, but you get the idea. And the kit comes with very good instructions if you haven't done one of these before.
I was and still will look at other shaft options like a Double Double Cardan and have done this on rovers in the past. But for now I just replaced the joint itself. Currently Agile Off-road offers a replacement joint that is effectively identical to the factory joint. If you pay attention you will find that this joint is very common and conversion adapters for standard Ujoints are a dime a dozen in the off-road world.
Anyways, this allows you to salvage the shaft and just replace the joint. Agiles kit is about $185. This includes everything you need. I would buy at least one kit and keep it in your truck as a spare regardless of if you lift the truck or not. Install is easy enough if you have the right tools. The back half of the stock joint is crimped on, so that's a bit of a road block if you are on the side of the road, but if you have a grinder you can cut the dome off the back to access the clip. You will be tossing the cap anyways. As well I used my press to remove the joint but you can do it with a decent hammer and a bit of frustration.
Having issue uploading a couple other pics, but you get the idea. And the kit comes with very good instructions if you haven't done one of these before.
