I've been reading on a couple forums of multiple premature failure. Some on the first few thousand miles. Not just the u-joints but other parts as well. What gives?
Tom Woods Driveshaft failure
- Thread starter RoverDude
- Start date
ptschram
Well-known member
I've had a few problems with the shafts including ujoints & centering balls... but most likely due to the pine barrens silty water that I wheel in (I need to start greasing weekly I guess)... but I did have one absolute failure... got front shaft rebuilt from TW, greased it and went to moab, and came back... on the way home it exploded at the centering ball... had maybe 3-4k on it... they replaced it under warranty without a problem, and said that it was a fault of the part itself, nothing that I did..
I'm personally going to probably start investing in sealed for life ujoints and change them out every 50k miles... with the usage that I do around here, the greasable ones just can't keep up with it.
I'm personally going to probably start investing in sealed for life ujoints and change them out every 50k miles... with the usage that I do around here, the greasable ones just can't keep up with it.
mine has a little vibration and flaking paint, but it works well and I would buy one again...
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jrose609 said:
Not a failure... yet
BUT I have one of those telltale "front driveshaft bind" vibes that you get good at diagnosing after working on these trucks. I even ordered my shafts bare and painted them here instead of letting them spray them with bedliner after balancing them. Now I have the DC shafts front and rear and since ordering mine have not really gone back and pulled them to check angles (and I played with the links and springs a few times) but I dunno if thats the problem or not.
If there is enough interest in this topic we could build a master spreadsheet with output shaft and pinion flange angles and dimensions of the actual shafts, so on and so forth- Tom Woods builds strong shafts no doubt but anyone "custom making" each unit is bound to run into some little issue somewhere down the road.
I had one "Fail" but I personally don't know how or what caused it since it happened the day I picked up my truck from the dealership after it sat there for a month. I drove it to the dealer straight from a 250 mile trip and didn't notice a problem and hadn't for the 6 months prior. It had a baddddd clicking when I pulled it out of the parking lot after I picked it up. Long story short...I called Tom and told him what happened. He replaced it and apparently it lost the centerball grease fitting or he said one of his guys might not have put it in (I hadn't had to grease it so I didn't know). He had it shipped back to me ASAP, haven't had a problem since and it wouldn't deter me from buying another from him.
I put mine in and have had some vibration. I think I'm going to exchange it for a couble cardin and see if that helps solve the problem.
D
D Chapman
Guest
Mike_Rupp said:
I'm betting they're 3" lifts.......and they have no idea what you're talking about (driveshaft angles).
Mine had a vibration problem but they sent me a new one. Then, a few thousand miles later, it felt really bad a so I sent it back to them to replace the U-joints. They said it was a bad centering ball and replace it and the U-joints free of charge. I would definitely call them for any future driveshaft needs.
Hey! Mine's a 3 inch lift!?
I DO Know what the driveshaft angle is doing on mine, but I thought I could get away with a 2 joint when I talked to the guys at TW. (cost issue for me) They said that I could exchange it for a DC if I needed to.
I DO Know what the driveshaft angle is doing on mine, but I thought I could get away with a 2 joint when I talked to the guys at TW. (cost issue for me) They said that I could exchange it for a DC if I needed to.
Looks like you'll be calling them often. But seriously, this sounds like a serious issue? Great they'll replace under warranty. But who wants to continue to exchange your DS? Does anyone know the quality of the "Gold Seal" u-joints they are using? My driveline shop said they were inferior. He probably just wants my business as I did buy a custom length DC unit from him.mbrummal said:
They told me a while back the seals are actually pretty bad but that was so you could get new grease in them fairly easily after a water crossing/muddy excursion