My driveshaft fell off on the freeway!

[BranndonC]

I was driving home after dropping off my axles, tires and rims with zcarczar, and about an hour into the drive, (i was going 75-85) i heard this loud metal slapping freeway and being run over sound, looked out the back (top was off) and i see this thing that looked circular skidding down the freeway, i though i dropped my tranny pan, so i pulled over immedately to see what was wrong, and the gas pedal wouldn't work (duh) so i knew it was more than the tranny pan, and behold no rear driveshaft!so i think when it came off it spun so fast in a circle that it looked like a disk of some sort. So after waiting an hour and 20 minutes for a tow truck, i call Jason (zcarczar) and he says it's ok to drive home on the front shaft only, and to check and the slip yoke and make sure it is still plugged up, so i put it in 4 hi and drive the 100 plus miles home with no other problems... Heres some pics.

This last pic is just to see what it looked like afterwards

 

[BorregoK5]

Woah, that could have cause more damage. Your rather lucky that it only hit the muffler and shot off the truck. So whats the plan on replacment? If you were going to make any changes to he truck which might have changed the driveline geometry then nows your chance. Then you can get the driveline to the exact length you need.

 

[Muddytazz]

ouch, is that all that got damaged?

 

[BranndonC]

as far as i know that is all, and i planned on going from 6 inch to 4 inch anyway, so maybe now i can get a 1 ton shaft just right for the 4 inch lift

 

[BobK]

crappy luck man but where is the slip yoke on that rear shaft?Is it a solid shaft,just 2 u-joints at each end?
If it's solid,there would be no provision for the movement of the drivetrain.Especially a 4x4,the drivetrain moves back and forth quite a bit.I'll bet things got fatigued enough to finally let go.

 

[cybrfire]

Looks like a 208 transfer case with the slip yoke in the output of the transfer case. I lost a drive shaft in the same manner but it did alot more damage than that. It even bent the bottom lip of the frame rails a little bit.

 

[Swanson52]

[ QUOTE ]
crappy luck man but where is the slip yoke on that rear shaft?Is it a solid shaft,just 2 u-joints at each end?

[/ QUOTE ]

Slip yoke is in the tcase on the 241.

 

[BobK]

That's my 1st gen thinking for ya.Fixed yoke on my 205.Sorry about that. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[big83chevy4x4]

sorry to here about that. i had the same thing happen to me when i was going to get my dad who was broke down (from an alternator going out). the only damage i did was break the ear off the tranny where the tcase adapter bolts on and crack the tailshaft housing on the t case. so i had two puddles of oil everywhere i parked from then on. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[MR4WD]

Keep it for a spare!!

What let go to cause that? U-joints must have been bone dry and the crosses whittled down to nothing. I've never seen a shaft drop out of a pinion yoke without taking parts of the yoke with it.

 

[BranndonC]

your probably, i've never been told how to maintain a driveshafe before.... so now i'll learn

 

[Triaged]

Tough lesson to learn...and expensive as well.

I've learned a few things that way myself /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[gokartergo]

It's those damn slip yokes.. I had one go bad.. Luckily I was only going about 45.. Mine broke in the exact same spot.. I put new U-joints in it 3 months before that and had grased them up the week before.. I then broke another one 6 months later.. But that one got caught on some rocks.. I hate slip yokes...