Drive shaft? Where did it go?
 

Hey ya'll I'm in a bit of a predicament and was wondering if anyone could throw some useful advice my way. I was driving a few days ago and noticed that I had some extreme vibration going on. I pulled over and checked out my lug nuts on my tires (sounds strange but I just got new tires and thought maybe they guy who threw them on screwed up and didn't get everything on tight enough, yes I have had a friend that almost lost a whole wheel from that.) but they were all good. At this point I was about 2 miles away from my house so I decided to just drive super slow and try to limp it home. About one mile away from my house I gave it a little bit more gas and BOOM!!! I pulled over right away and checked out my truck. My first thought was my CV joint on my passenger side had seized up and blew on me but it was still doing alright. It was at that point I looked and saw my drive shaft laying on the ground hanging from my differential. What I believe happened is that the previous owner dropped the drive shaft at the t-case to replace the seal and didn't re-lock tight the bolts or something because it was apparent from the t-case flange had markings from where one bolt seemed to be taking all the load, the other 3 apparently seem to have gone missing. Everything looks to be alright on the flange and the U-joints and stuff the issue I'm having is the drive shaft is in a compressed state. So when I go to re-connect the drive shaft to the t-case flange there's a gap. I have tried to decompress it some both by hand and today we connected some ratchet straps to it on either side and torqued them up but that only seems to have moved it a little bit, I still need about another 1/4-1/2 an inch I believe to get everything bolted back together. Should I just go to a "pick-a-part" and grab one off a truck or should I send the drive shaft to a shop and see what they can do with it? Or is there some way for me to decompress it. Thanks for your time guys! OH! I don't know if it matters to anyone but I have a 89 22re 5 speed.

I'd send it to a shop. I'd be willing to bet that you bent it when it hit the ground

X2^^^^^

yep bent for sure.....

Every time one of these threads pops up, I always forget to double and triple check my driveshaft bolts, thanks for the reminder.

driveshaft bolts are something that should be inspected periodically, just like the rest of the truck...

Try pumping some grease into the slip yolk. Sometimes it can cause a vaccuum and be a real bear to try to decompress. The grease will extend the yolk and you should be able to get it to fit. Then test drive it and see if you have any vibration. If you do then it is time for a new drive shaft. BTW is it one piece or two piece driveshaft?

I remember something of this sort in someone's build thread...

yep, that build thread would be mine:pissed:
hence why it is now a regular check:bigok:

Thanks for the advice y'all! I'll try the grease out and see what happens. It's gotta be one of those 2 piece ones you can see where on section mates with the second section which makes up the main body of the drive shaft. I'll take a picture tomorrow if I have time and throw it up. I'm going camping with some friends tomorrow but if I don't get it up tomorrow before I leave then I'll get one up first thing when I get home. Obviously it could be bent but if it is bent then it's so minutely bent I can't really see it. Not be any means ruling that out from what you guys have said I appreciate everyone helping out. I've already been preparing myself to have to replace it just trying anything I can to cut the costs since I currently don't have a job. Crossing my fingers that the grease will do the trick.

I think I would rather go camping then work on a truck also.

You people with drive shaft bolts coming loose are you still using the stock Toyota Bolts ???

The only time I ever had a problem someone put in just regular bolts they worked loose.

Maybe your driving style is different then my old man driving 50 plus.

I use the stock bolts different ones for the for the v6 and turbo trucks then the 22rec.

I never seize tighten them look at them when greasing the truck but never had any come loose just like my warn hubs Ha Ha

Thanks RRogers! The grease worked to extend it, sorry I don't have pictures yet. I need to get bolts and stuff tomorrow. wyoming9 this truck has had about 5 PO's and I personally know a couple of them and they beat the heck out of it. I'm one of the first ones to come along that is really giving the truck any kind of TLC. Most of the previous owners did just enough to keep the thing running, it's a shame really. I'm usually really easy on the truck I've just been super busy to pay any attention to my truck right now. I've been working quite a bit on a couple vehicles that the people I live with now in Washington own.

Glad it worked. Have you been able to check it out and see if you have any vibration in the driveline yet?

No not yet, I have bolts on the way. If everything works out and they are in Portland right now I should have it up and running on Wednesday evening. I unfortunately don't have much in the way of options, if it's causing vibrations I'll have to live with it until I can get work and a new one. Two things will be happenin very regularly from now on though, greasing it and checking the bolts hahaha.

Working in other areas of manufacturing I've learned how bolts that seem the same can be very different and cause issues when your not aware of it.

I learned for my first time several years ago on a friends car. We were doing our first brake job ran into all sorts of problems and wound up having to replace the mounting bolts. Long story short, thought I had them tight enough and one backed out and the caliper swung out and brought the car to a hault.

The bolts we used are from a bin at my work (A tool & die shop) these bolts require a lot more torque in order to stretch sufficiently to hold. This "stretching" is actually quite little, and also shouldn't be confused with a plastic deformation as in torque to yield which are one time use. Rather this is still well below the yield strength which means the material will return to the original shape once removed.

The other thing to be careful is sometimes the mounting points, tapped brackets in this case, aren't strong enough to handle the extra torque. This can sometimes be difficult to make a good judgment call. Even though my friend and I were somewhat inexperienced at the time (several years ago), we did have someone there who had lots of engineering experience.

Other things you may want to consider if you are replacing the nut and bolt are things like threads. What pitch/ were they a coarse or fine thread? Also what kind of style/head was it.

In our case we went with socket head cap screws. Its what we had and they work great. With the grade of bolt we used you cant use chepo harbor freight allen wrenches though. You will strip, bend, break the wrench.

I guess the point i'm trying to make is that aftermarket bolts and nuts shouldn't be an issue and can offer some improvements as well. So long as the right knowledge is applied. One nice thing is that with the internet you can decode the markings on the bolts, or look up which grade you will need.

This site has some info on SAE bolt grades and identification

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/st...es-d_1426.html

Huh this kind a turned into a novel. Oh well hopefully someone finds this information useful.

^^^^ thanks man, interesting stuff.


So sorry for the late reply, my lil brother needed a computer for a couple weeks so I basically gave him mine. It's up and running. Pumped it full of grease and picked up the bolt set from the yota dealership and it's good to go!! :bllama: it took a little bit of work but it's good now.

gonna recheck mine tomorrow