Well, on the way to work this am, in the fast lane, started top get a very bad vibration and 10 seconds later a knocking.....then 5 secs later.....no driveshaft

Pics attached....so question is, does anyone know the dimensions of the rear uni joint that has snapped here?? i dont think ive done damage to shaft, looks like a new UJ will do it....i have one here in work and cant check it off broken UJ as its still on the side of the motorway

 

looking at that end I would not trust it with a new u joint, I would just get a new driveshaft or used from the boneyard. The end is pretty well screwed up

I had the same thing happen to me last summer...i didn't tighten the bolts properly. Pulled over, pulled the left overs out, locked the front hubs and drove home in FWD.

 

had the same thing happen bout a month ago , lukily the 4runner was already in the shop for other work , and the tech took it for a test drive and it ( the driveshaft) dropped out about 200ft from the shop. 150.00 later all is good

 

when you say "locked the front hubs" what do you mean???

 

crawyota...did you get away without having to replace driveshaft??

 

no , the driveshaft was worn out where the u joints go , it cost me 150.00 . he probablly has manual locking hubs , thats why he locked them.

 

Do i have them??????????

 

Same thing happened to me in the 93 about 5 or 6 years ago.... I replaced the u-joints with el-cheapo's ($8.99/ea), and the next day on the highway at 80mph the shaft came out.... at least you didnt do any serious damage.... I had a mess of carnage after mine came apart.... I was just cruising at 80...then as you said...a vibration, that changed to a knock, at that point I let off the throttle, and snap...looking thru my rearview, I watched the drive shaft fly up and over the car behind me....whew! When I got out to look at the damage, I was amazed.... It ripped all the coolant lines out to the rear heater, put a nasty dent in my gas tank, rendering my fuel pump useless... and it was the front joint that let go, so the front of the shaft droppped down, and got caught under the rear wheel, and ripped it off of the flange on the rear diff... so ya, new output shaft in the transfer, and a whole new rear diff...
That was an expensive lesson....now I use quality u-joints, and make 100% sure everything is the way it should be!

 

If you have manual locking hubs you will have a small handle on the end of your front wheel hubs (between the lug nuts) that is labeled "free" and "lock". When you rotate the hub to Lock the wheel is connected to the front drive shaft and when it's rotated to Free the front wheels act like you have a 2wd truck and turn freely. If you don't have it then you have a system called ADD or possibly, auto locking hubs.

 

he's got a 95 4runner , like me , i think they have the add hubs. i am bout to do the manual hub conversion soon.