ZJ:Gsoh darn #$%& &*#@&% $#@% stupid ZJ

[Howler]

I have had this sound coming from my ZJ. Here are the symptoms. While turning left or right I get a clicking sound. The faster I go the faster the sound. In the city if I am going the speed limit you cannot hear it at all. If I am at a stop sign and accelerate, it starts to click for a few seconds after I take my foot of the pedal. It seams to only click if I am not giving it gas but coasting. Now on the highway as I accelerate to 60 MPH? (80KMH) I do hear the clicking. Sounds similar but not quite to a trailer chain dragging on the ground. As I hit 60 MPH my RPM's drop from 2000 to 1500 without the tranny making any kind of noise at all. NO shift noise, no noticeable loss of power it just drops. I also have a howl coming from the front but only at the 60 MPH speed and only when I have my foot on the gas. I have had the passenger side hub replaced as the boot was torn and the joint was near the end (according to mechanic). The clicking sound does feel like it is coming from the Tcase area but not sure as I can not pinpoint it. Any and all help is truly appreciated.
Thanks Howler

[MaineZJ]

How long have you had this? I don't know the answer and forgive me please, but the only clicking I've ever heard on mine was when I had a stone in my tread. Oh once had a bolt too. Drove me nuts for awhile!

[Howler]

Well it has been like this for about a week. Now I talked to my DIY mechanic neighbor on Wed. and he said that it sounds like the splines in the Tcase are just not quite connection. He told me to try and move the shaft to see if it could just reseat itself. Told me there would be a distinctive clunk when this happened. Well last night I was heading to a Basketball game and voilà, on the way there there was a distinctive clunk like it when into gear and I no longer have the clicking sound. I do however still have the hum with the RPM drop thing happening. Might be the CV but not sure.
Hower
PS To describe the ticking think of how kids put a baseball card in the spokes of a bike. Same type of sound but more metal on metal if you know what I mean.

[Yucca-man]

The "RPM drop" should be your overdrive kicking in. That's about the right speed. If you lightly tap the brake (make sure noone is behind you) the RPM should jump 300-500 RPM when the OD kicks off.

[Howler]

Yuk man you are right. It is the Over drive. Just turned it of and watched the RPMs and that was it. Now I had to do an emergency rescue of an F150 (Stupid drivers) anyway it was basically one long puddle. For the most part the water was just to the bottom part of the rim. Not that deep. Went really slow so I did not sture up any mud. Now it seams that I have something that needs greasing. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should be greasing, Other then the standard steering linkage nipples. Ujoints, Driveshaft or anything like that? Thanks in advance. BTW the F150 had 6 inchs of lift and 33 BFG MT's and he got stock. Should have seen the look on his face when the ZJ just walked down the puddle? Pricless.

[Yucca-man]

Good to hear that the OD was figgered out.

What should you grease? Everything that has a nipple. If your front driveshaft is like my XJ and has a double-cardan (CV) joint on the rear of the shaft, you need to clean out the mud and crud that has packed up in there as well. I haven't looked at mine for awhile, but I believe there was a grease fitting under there as well. Mine got pulled out numerous weeks back because the bearing inside the CV joint rotted.

I hope to take pics this weekend as I reassemble it and make the XJ 4 wheel drive again. BTW-removing the front shaft has no noticeable effect on gas mileage.

[Howler]

Thanks Yuk man. My front driveshaft is a Double-cardan and CV still. That is where most of my sounds come from. I checked yesterday and I noticed there is a little play at the Double-cardan joint end. I imagine the u-joints are factory so I guess they are not greasable. Also my haynes book says that the CV joint on the Driveshaft is not rebuildable. Does that aslo mean I can't take it apart to clean it?
Thanks for you help.
Howler

[Yucca-man]

I really need to et around to fixing mine and getting pictures posted. The driveshaft uses three 297 u-joints. One is at the front, but the other two are buried inside the big round thingy that IS the CV joint.

If you pull it off the Jeep and lay it out on a workbench you will see that the u-joint caps can be removed like most other axles, and once you get two or three of them off, the rest of the CV joint comes apart. There is a cup and ball-type assembly at the end of the shaft, and that is where the majority of the wear and noise occur on that driveshaft. I knocked gobs of dried mud out of mine when I disassembled it, but then realized that the needle bearing in the cup had probably never been greased, and wore grooves in the race. That's about an $85 piece from a driveshaft shop here.

Good luck with it, and look for pictures within the next week somewhere online. Most likely I will try to get Tiff to put them up as another tech article.

BTW, it's "Yucca" as in the cactus, not Yuk as it refers to my ex... :D

[Howler]

BTW, it's "Yucca" as in the cactus, not Yuk as it refers to my ex... :D
Sorry I keep thinking Yuk as in Yuk Yuk's the comedy bars.

Ok looking at my Haynes manuel it says the end of the driveshatf with the boot is the CV Joint which, according to the book, is non reparable. The end on the Tcase is the Double-cardan joint. They label it as a Type 3 Driveshaft. I'm hoping that it is the Tcase side seeing that I can't fix the other side. When you get pics let me know. I would be interested in seeing them. Thanks again for you help. Definatly a lot better then trying to talk to a mechanic at the stealership. Not to say all mechanics are bad, just the ones that I get.:D