Kawasakizx636

Hey guys, my jeep has been starting to make some noise lately. I hear it the most in the morning when i first leave my place. It sounds like it's a drive shaft. When it starts rolling, i can hear the noise "clunking" as the wheels spin, it'll get louder as i press on the gas, but then it goes away. It makes a lot of noise if my wheels are spinning in the snow. My buddy says that it could be my U-joint. I have the aev 3.5 RS lift with the geometry brackets. I see many people say that i don't need adjustable control arms with the brackets, but things are definitely not where they're suppose to be, the caster is low, and thrust angle "whatever that is" isn't in the green either. The drive shafts don't seem to be aligned properly, and i believe that's what's causing my drive shaft to go.

The thing i'd like to know is, do i need to get the adjustable control arms first, before ordering the drive shafts? I'll be ordering some Tom Woods shafts, but it says that i need to take measurements, and i'm sure that will change once i install the control arms. I'm still debating on what control arms to go with, and some are very pricy, so i was wondering if i could just get the drive shafts and then mess around with the control arms. My jeep has a very floaty feel to it since installing the lift.

2climbbig

Check your drive shaft and see if you feel any play. Also, check your ujoints on your front axle. See if the caps popped off your u-joints.

Kawasakizx636

How exactly do i check it for play? Do i just grab onto it and see if i can turn it a bit? Or do i need to lift the tires off the ground to check? And as for the ujoints, if the caps are still in place, does that mean they're still good?

I'll have a look tomorrow.

nthinuf

Post your alignment specs. And crawl underneath and look at both ends of both driveshafts, just to double check that grease is/isn't spitting out.

The ca brackets should have three sets of holes, aligning to three different lift heights/caster settings. Are you sure that yours are in the correct holes?

Kawasakizx636

The correct holes are the middle holes (3.5"), but since my jeep isn't heavy, it's in the 4.5" hole. If there was a 5.5" hole, i'm sure it would be in that one, but since there isn't any more adjustment, i believe the only thing i can do is get adjustable control arms.

I'm going to crawl under the jeep tomorrow and take a look.

Kawasakizx636

Here's the sheet. For some reason, the guy said he printed the copy before doing the caster, so then he wrote the numbers down instead of re-printing another. They also told me that i would need an offset balljoint to correct the camber on the left front.

2climbbig

before I went to cromollys I had a lot of issues with that caps popping off the front axle shafts. When they do come off you here a clicking sound at low speeds and while turning.

As for the drive shaft, The are bad when you have play between the ears holding the u-joint. So hold both sides of the u-joint and see if one side will move without the other. If that is fine, then try pushing it up and down and see if you feel any play that way. If you feel any play... time to change them.

The whole drive shaft itself will rotate a bit but that is normal. That is the play in the gears on both ends. So expect some rotation. As you jeep puts on miles you will see more play there and that is normal.

By the way, did you do any work on your driveline?

Kawasakizx636

I just drove my jeep over to my parents place to have a look. If I try and turn the driveshaft, it does a lil bit, but like the guy above me just said, that's normal. I do see a lil bit of oil, but nothing huge. As soon as I backed my jeep out of it's parking spot and started to roll forward, that's when I hear it, I then heard it again about 25 feet up since I had to come to a stop, but after that, the noise went away completely. I found a video on YouTube of someone showing the noise his ujoints make and that isn't the sound I'm hearing, it's not constant noise, and I don't get vibrations. It almost sounds like the gears are skipping/grinding, but I just added ARB diff covers on the front and back and the gears look brand new, also had no shavings on the magnets. I'm going to try and remove the front drive shaft but I won't know till tomorrow morning if it solves it, since that's the only time I hear the noise. This is very weird.

Kawasakizx636

ok, i went under the jeep again. The U-joints feel very tight, there's zero play up and down or side to side. But, i can push the driveshaft up towards the floor of the jeep a qtr inch or so, when i do that, it kinda feels like the outer shell of the drive shaft touching the inner parts, makes a lil click noise. The u-joints don't move when i push upwards on the shaft, kinda feels like it flexes in the middle somewhere. I don't know if this is what's making the noise, but I do have the drive shaft removed, so i'll soon find out.

Kawasakizx636

Was a very quiet morning here, so i was able to get a good hear today, sounds like it's coming from the rear of the jeep. It's definitely not my front axle. As for the front driveshaft where it connects to the tranny, is that just a cap that presses on "where the grease is", cause as i was taking off the driveshaft, that cap was slighly popping off on the one side and when i had the drive shaft out, i was able to lift the cap off to see the grease inside. I wonder if it's safe to put back in like this, or if that cap needs to be glued or something. I can take a pic later if you guys don't understand what i'm talking about.

I have no clue what's causing this noise :( Sounds like it might be coming from the rear wheels. Sounds like gears skipping/grinding. And the noise pics up as the wheels turn faster, but only at first, and then goes away.

Edit: i just found a video that i think sounds like mine. I haven't tried lifting the rear and spinning the axle, but i'm guessing that it'll make that noise once i do. Here's the video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psHeb7mYaRY