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ExplorerTom
December 7th, 2014, 04:46 PM
Broke my rear driveshaft slip yoke yesterday on Devil's Canyon. Made it about 2/3 of the loop CCW and this thing spit out the driveshaft while climbing a snowy part of the trail. FWD'd it off the trail with significant use of a snatch strap and a supercharged 80 series.

http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu143/TJUrbanek/Explorer/Devils%20Canyon/9e1ff9d80ffd2a6cbf379e026677a35f.jpg

since it's Sunday, Bill's is closed.

What are my options? Does Bill just upgrade the hollow tube part of the driveshaft? This piece is obviously junk. Has anyone else seen this part fail before?

what kind of other driveshaft options should I look into? Go same route as stock?
94ToyBear
December 7th, 2014, 06:15 PM
Now much of the slip yoke is actually spline to spline ?
RidgeRunner
December 7th, 2014, 08:57 PM
Bill's is a full service drive shaft shop. I'm sure he can replace that and possibly recommend a stronger replacement.
94ToyBear
December 7th, 2014, 09:46 PM
bill built our schools race mustang drive shaft. Prettiest shaft iv ever seen.
ExplorerTom
December 7th, 2014, 09:52 PM
Bill upgraded my front shaft so I've worked with him before. All that was done with that one was replace the tube with something that wasn't bent. I'll swing by him tomorrow.
Hypoid
December 7th, 2014, 10:45 PM
Looks like it had a good life!
ExplorerTom
December 10th, 2014, 08:00 PM
Stopped by Bill's tonight. He's going to build me a bombproof axle. I'm going from 32 spline to 16 so the splined sleeve will be thicker. The rear u joint will be a 1 ton unit. The tube itself will get bigger and thicker. It'll get more travel. It'll be awesome!

He thinks the reason it broke was because I was getting axle wrap while I was climbing the snowy section of trail. That rotated the axle downwards and thus pulled the driveshaft out toward the skinny part of the splined sleeve where just a little bit of the splines were engaged which basically caused the shaft to buckle by cracking the splined sleeve.
Rick
December 10th, 2014, 08:08 PM
:thumb:
Brad
December 10th, 2014, 11:15 PM
Bill knows all. I need to see him about a rear shaft on my 95.
ExplorerTom
December 11th, 2014, 08:27 PM
Went to pick it up tonight. I walked in and could hear the lathe running in the back. Then I heard BANG! and the lathe turned off. And then I heard a bunch of words that wouldn't pass through the site's filter. He was boring out the spline shaft and snapped off his last boring bar.

So it'll be ready tomorrow.
ExplorerTom
December 13th, 2014, 12:07 PM
This is set at static length (neutral suspension):
http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu143/TJUrbanek/Explorer/07c43fc02568cf5159b682c49bd86c45.jpg
you can see how little of the stock splines were actually engaged.

This is full extension of the shaft but not what the suspension would cause the shaft to extend- for the new shaft anyway. The old shaft would extend this far, and farther on a lift:
http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu143/TJUrbanek/Explorer/e0fa89aa4faf97028d67eee531e588ce.jpg

3" OD tube vs 2.5" OD tube. 1330 and 1350 Spicer u-joints. Greasable spline tube and u joints.
Brad
December 13th, 2014, 06:42 PM
Thing of beauty. :thumb:
Java
December 14th, 2014, 09:00 AM
wow, there really wasn't much of the stock one working at all. That new one looks like a monster next to it!
ExplorerTom
December 20th, 2014, 04:05 PM
Got the new one installed finally. I dropped a bolt in the snow on the trail and hadn't made time to stop by the dealer to pick up a new bolt.

http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu143/TJUrbanek/Explorer/2633F6F7-D610-43AE-A9BF-D1EA17B34800.jpg

Bill said to install the splines down so they present a smaller cross section to obstacles. Ok fine.