front ds rebuild or tom woods?

[SW86]

front shaft is shot. only one ujoint is good, other two are toast along with the centering ball. then i knocked off a weight (BFH) when taking them out. my thing is. I'm about to jump to 6.5 but would my stock shaft be fine at those heights? also the rebuild with everything i need is next to 100 bucks. tom woods isnt that far off from there.

 

what would you do?

[JeepcoMJ]

stock at 6.5 has always been fine for me. I've roasted a couple, but that was after beating on it pretty hard, and usually bending them on a rock.

 

they're plentiful, and cheap at junkyards. or buy some parts jeeps, scrap them out, keep the shafts, and make some money on other parts.

[86customanche]

^ do that or just go ahead and drop a couple hundred on the tom woods and not have to pay for another one again. All of my friend's have tom woods shafts and they love them. Never had problems with them and even if they did it would be fixed for free. IMO I wouldnt but a parts jeep just for the shaft, seems like a little much, but if you can fine cheap shafts at the JY, go for it

[boardmanMJ]

if your worried that your stock shaft will be too short you can always go to a v8 ZJ front shaft. same ujoints but about 3 inches longer. just gotta watch and make sure that you find a ZJ with the ujoint driveshaft instead of cv joint.

 

 

Josh

[SW86]

any certain years on the ZJ or is it just whenever i come across one kind of thing? there are no spare MJs around here. ever. if there is its totaled or they think they have gold. hardly ever a parts MJ, espcially 4wd.

 

i think this has been over as well but wouldnt a XJ front shaft work?

[JeepcoMJ]

yes, xj shafts will work.

 

I wasn't seriously telling you to get parts jeeps just for the shaft. just saying, I've had over 20 shafts laying around over time...i've only wrecked two. one was on my wheeling mj when I bent it on a rock, the other was on a virtually stock 88 metric ton, and the ball joint failed on it...from lack of proper maintenance.

 

never had an issue with them being too short. just be sure your front pinion angle isn't screwed up, and NEVER use a transfercase drop kit. there is no need for one on an mj anyways.

[ryno56]

Not only will XJ shafts work... they are exactly the same, and a dime a dozen at the JY's.

[SW86]

good to know. i seemed to remember that someone was saying they were different lengths on XJs. guess its a case of don't believe everything you read :dunno:

 

 

XJs are plentyful so ill grab one tomorrow

[ryno56]

As a GENERAL rule of thumb, you can swap pretty much everything from the doors forward on an XJ.

[JeepcoMJ]

yes. so long as it's equipped the same as your jeep is.

[Boots]

I believe that the front shafts from an auto are a little bit longer than the ones from a manual.