Driveshaft play question.

J

jaymz1970

New member
I am looking at buying a friends Typhoon with 127K on it. After reading the Syclone / Typhoon Buyers Guide, number 9 stuck out to me when I felt the driveshaft. The front and back both seem to have more play than they should. All it says is really loose means bad things. What kind of bad things are they talking about?

Thanks,

Jamie
 
turbodig

turbodig

Active member
Re: Driveshaft play question.

jaymz1970 said:
I am looking at buying a friends Typhoon with 127K on it. After reading the Syclone / Typhoon Buyers Guide, number 9 stuck out to me when I felt the driveshaft. The front and back both seem to have more play than they should. All it says is really loose means bad things. What kind of bad things are they talking about?

Thanks,

Jamie
Click to expand...

You'll have to replace the shaft. You'll want to do that before it blows up and whacks a hole in the trans case.

The rear driveshaft is usually just a matter of replacing u-joints. Depending on where the play is, you could have rear diff issues, as well.

The intent of the comment was that a driveline with lots of loose parts indicates a lot of hard launches. Since you know something about the previous owner, you can gauge how big of an issue this is.
 
J

jaymz1970

New member
Re: Driveshaft play question.

Ok cool, thanks. I thought that might be the case. I don't know the whole history, but the truck has always been driven by his aunt who drove it b/c of the all wheel drive (snowy winters here). She was the 1st owner and to my knowledge, doesn't beat on her cars. He has only owned it about 1 month and has not driven it but once or twice. I guess can they just wear out?

So I need to start with inspecting and maybe replacing the front driveshaft (is it called a prop shaft?) and maybe the u-joints on the rear.

Thanks again!

Jamie
 
M

MikeRenz

not stock
Re: Driveshaft play question.

how are you checking for play? is the vehicle up in the air and you can twist it? it the vehicle on the ground and your can twist it? Just the ujoints seem to have play? describe the "play"
 
J

jaymz1970

New member
Re: Driveshaft play question.

The back tires were jacked up off the ground and the fronts were still on the ground. The truck was in park. I took ahold of the driveshaft in my hand and turned it from one way to the other. It seamed to travel from one side to the other more than I am used to seeing (but I'm no expert). Is this checking it wrong? I wont be able to see it again until this weekend, but I will recheck it and pay more attention to everything.
 
M

MikeRenz

not stock
Re: Driveshaft play question.

you're going to be able to spin the shafts a little. Just like when you put your car in park and it can roll forward a couple inches.

you aren't checking the driveshafts by what you describe.
 
M

MikeRenz

not stock
Re: Driveshaft play question.

stock propshaft: check the rubber boot for tears/leaking grease. Make sure the joint moves freely with no dead spots or clicking. Check the double cardan joint moves the same. Check for straightness/balance.

rear driveshaft: highly doubt there is anything wrong...but check the ujoint for smoothness/non-clicking action. It's pretty rare that these trucks have rear driveshaft issues.
 
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