[whincup]

a u-joint that i replaced less than 9 months ago has developed slop in it (moves a little when rotating the driveshaft). all other u-joints are perfectly fine, and been there since i purchased the car nearly 2 years ago, but this one is newish. what could cause slop like this? last time it broke it left some heavy wear marks on the driveshaft, could this unbalance the shaft and do damage to the u-joint? and does that leave me with the only option of buying a new shaft?

also, while trying to pull the shaft out, i got my brother to put the tranny/transfer case into neutral to spin the shaft to get to the bolts i couldnt reach, then had him put it back in gear... while doing so, the gearstick has jammed in position just to the right of 4H... what could cause this?

dont know if this is important or not, but the shaft is the one that connects the tranny to the transfer case, broken joint is on the transfer case end...

 

[Baratacus]

check your case mounts. Misallignment could be causing the sticking of the shifter as well as the U-joint wearing out. Did you get the joint with the zirc grease fitting? If so, did you pump it full of grease?

 

[whincup]

ive never had a problem with the shifter before today, it has always been very smooth and easy to move... if the mounts were misaligned, would it not have been a problem earlier on?
as for the u joint, i dont know but im pretty sure i didnt get any zirc grease fitting but cant be sure, i just walked into the the local parts dealer and told them what i needed...

 

[Baratacus]

some of the ujoints come with them, some don't. It's just a nipple thats on the ujoint that you can put a grease gun on and lube the u-joint. The joints that don't have the fitting on them can not be greased unless you remove the U-joint and pull the caps off. If the tcase is misaligned or has a broken mount or bolt, then it could have prematurely worn out your u-joint on the intermediate shaft. There isn't a whole lot of movement there to mess up the ujoint so quickly if it's all bolted up tight. If the intermediate shaft ujoint is going out it will cause a lot of stress on the mounts and could have damaged one the first time around and it may have sheered after you replaced the first u-joint. Wrenching around under there and trying to get at the bolts could be causing the shifter to get jacked against something. Have you taken the boot off to see if it's jammed against the tunnel? Is your t-case stock?

 

[whincup]

yea the t case is stock, no reduction gears, etc... havent had a chance to take the boot off for a look, but while i was under there i did have a look to make sure it wasnt hitting anything, but couldnt see it making contact with anything anywhere...

i might have another look this afternoon to be sure, and while im there i will check to make sure the mounts are all intact and not twisted, etc...

Edit: just went and pulled the boot off, the lever is definitely not hitting anything underneath, and the u-joint has no grease nipple... is this problem going to cost a fortune to fix?

 

[Baratacus]

jeeze I hope not. Maybe it's a coincidence that it locked up when you were working on the ujoint. pull the shifter out and make sure the shifter sheet is in tact.

As far as the intermediate shaft, you could have had a bearing go out on you causing stress on the shaft and ujoint. You should probably pull the tcase out and inspect it, overhauling it while it's out with new bearings and seals wouldn't be a bad idea. If you were planning on upgrading to a lower gear case, this would be a good time to send this one in for your core.

 

[whincup]

would love to get crawler gears, but first i need a decent set of tires... for now i think i will just try fix this one. i think that it was a coincidence that it happened while pulling out the shaft, is all the info to pull it out and check the shifter sheet in the FSM?

 

[whincup]

nevermind, i looked how to change it up on the internet. ive pulled out the lever, look down to try and find the shifter sheet...and discover it is COMPLETELY disintegrated!!... its just in dozens of tiny tiny pieces... on the upside the oil is very clean

anyway, is it just as simple as buy a new one and pop it in?... will buy a new one tomorrow...


as for the u-joint, i might look into the cost of a new shaft, as the damage is quite a bit worse than i originally thought, now ive had the chance to really look at it...

 

[Baratacus]

if the shaft is dammaged pretty badly then that could defintiely cause it to be unballanced and wear the Ujoint prematurely. Hopefully it didn't do any other damage to the transmission or tcase.

Glad the problem with the shifter was a simple shifter sheet. Those are super easy to replace.

 

[whincup]

ok so today i went into the spare parts dealer (not the actual suzuki dealer) and asked for a shifter sheet for a suzuki sierra transfer case... the guy looked at me like i was an idiot, but looked it up anyway... said there was nothing on the computer, so he couldnt even order one in... what exactly is it called? id rather try and get one locally first before resorting to buying one over the internet, never feel comfortable using credit card info over the web...

 

[Baratacus]

If you actually CAN find one online it won't be a polyurethane bushing like the ones you get from petroworks or trail tough etc. It's either called a shifter sheet or a shifter bushing. The stock oem part is rubber, the aftermarket good ones are either polyurethane or brass.

 

[whincup]

ok, managed to track one of those down, its going to be here tomorrow... now, back to the driveshaft... ive been able to track one down thats half of what i was expecting, including post. its used, but gotta be better than the one i have now. quick question: are the shafts all exactly the same amongst sierras, do they vary by year, or model...? other than WT/NT, as in SJ50, SJ70...? dont want to buy this then have it not fit.