deathrunner

So I'm on my 5th U joint on my rear driveshaft. What destroys these?

My suspension deosn't have a massive amount of travel. I'm worried when I put my 62's and get 16-18" of travel.

Would mud and moisture wear them out?

I get 8-11 months out of joints. The last ones I got were called Brute and were greased for life, no zerk fittings. This worried me at first, but the warranty gave me piece of mind. Luckily it broke within a month of the warranty expiring.

So what do you guys think of non-greaseable ujoints?

And How can I prolong thier life?

jimbo74

keep them lubed.... moisture and mud will wear them out.... vibration will wear them out... extreme angles will wera them out, so will dropping the clutch all the time as this cuases shock/torque loading and parts dotn like that.....

deathrunner

Moisture and mud -GUILTY

Lubrication - GUILTY without a choice (No zerks)

Dropping the clutch -GUILTY

Extreme Angles -INNOCENT

Vibration- How can I control that?

jimbo74

vibration, make sure the angles on the pinion and all that are good.... make sure the mud caked on is cleaned off, that will easily through the vibrations all over the place....

jon_7248

Well, as far as zirks go, you can add them to the joints. Thats what I did on my 4runner. by back ujoint on my rear shaft needed to get replaced and I just drilled a whole in it and added a zirk. It works great! That and I lubbed thwm everytime I went 4wheeling, and every oilchange.

kdx2000

Towing heavy loads puts stress on the rear driveline and will cause the u-joints to wear out quicker too!

leiniesred

water.

deathrunner

You know what, this is pretty much going where I thought it would.

Basically, off-road rigs are going to break U joints more often. No problem, they're relatively cheap, and I'm getting good at replacing them now.

seaflea

If ou are going through one U-joiint a year, then you may have a bad pinion angle. How is the rear lifted? With blocks? Is there a shim in there? If you could , post a pic of the rear drive line so we can see ( or attemt to see) what is going on there.

I have only had to replace my U-joints once every 100,000 miles or so.
Also look into getting some stronger ones. Brute force make one for our rigs and it is beefy compared to the OEM one. It also has a lifetime guarantee.

deathrunner

I just killed a brut force u joint.

The angle is fine. REALLY. In the rear I have 3 inch downey springs sagged to 2 inch. It's damn near stock.

I think it is a combination of the mud and water getting in there (Although I don't go deep enough to submerge the transfer case one. hmmmm.

I'm sure my clumbsy clutch work on the street and trail may have something to do with it. Would the locker add more stress????

seaflea

Yeah, a locker would definately add more stress to it. Killed the brute force huh? At least you are not having to buy a new one.

89_4runner

Seems very strange that you are running through u-joints yearly. I have 180k on my u-joints (never been changed). I even ran 6" rear springs for a couple of years.

Have you tried placing your rear axle on jackstands and looking for any vibrations? Maybe your rear driveshaft is out of balance. Do you notice any vibrations at highway speeds?

deathrunner

When the joints are good, no vibrations. My friend said his van would kill ujoints because the yoke holes were ovaled. Mine look okay, but maybe that's it.

I drive it pretty hard. Maybe it's just me and the mud

89_4runner

Maybe it's worth a shot swapping the yokes even if you just pick up a set from a salvage yard. Maybe you're pushing the rear too hard with a 5speed and locker. I'm definitely not a driveline expert, so you should take the truck to an expert for a second opinion on the problem.

You could upgrade the driveshaft and yokes, but then you may have diff failures.

I would recommend sticking with a quality greaseable joint.

By the way, which joint is typically breaking?

Flamedx4

I never broke a single u-Joint in my '85 with LSDs and 33s and I didn't baby it. I did however bend the driveshafts a time or two. I replaced the ujoints when I had the shafts straightened at something like 170,000 miles. I never broke a u-joint in the '90 with 37s and now 35s, and it's now at 215,000. That's a lotta miles with big tires and hard use, on factory u-joints. Something must be wrong, hard to believe it's just your driving style.

Napoleon047

i take it you are using the brute force u-joints from auto parts stores?

are they actually breaking or are they just wearing out and falling apart?

you have an odd situation because toyota u-joints are among the strongest, they have nearly a 1-ton rating. you may want to consider using some oem toyota joints.

i do carry brute force joints for spares though.

railroad_foreman69

i once took apart my slip joint to grease it, didnt align it right upon reassembly, went thru a super joint per week for a while till i figured it out, am i the only one?

94krawler

brute force u-joints aint the best but once a year is pretty fast.

call jesse at highangle he can get the factory replacements or call yota. mud and water will destroy u-joints. i grease mine after every run just to push out the junk. i stil have my stock joints on my rear shaft. i have only 130k on them but my truck takes a beating. those joints have made it through 3 diffs so far and no play .

deathrunner

The one that went this time is by the transfer.

I always mark the shaft alignment and never take out the slip joint,

The joints don't actually explode or break, they just cruble and wear up the bearings.

Because it was non greasable, I was unable to puch out the mud and water. I believe that is the reason for this failure.

I's rather this be the weak link than something else. Once a year on a off-roader is acceptable to me the more I think about it. I will just carry spares with me.

deathrunner

Went to Driveline Vista today.

I started tearing apart the u joints. It has always been hard at that end of the shaft, but today was super hard. SO half way through I took it to Driveline Vista. They said my Slip Yoke is shot. I'm glad I took it in. 69.00 for a new yoke and I still get to use my free joint.