Cracked rear drive shaft?

[g8mfzj80]

During some routine maintenance I noticed something strange by the yoke end of the rear driveshaft nearest the tcase. Looked cracked to me but its funny (rasied on that side) in the casting looks like it may have been that way for a while with the layers of dirt I cleaned off.

Regardless I not taking any chances and replacing it. Happen to anybody else? Nearing the 200k mark

Thanks
Brian

 

[fj80toyman]

I've never used it, but isn't there some cheap dye you can spray on it then look at it using a black light to see if it's cracked?

Like I said, no expert and it's probably worth just putting a new one on but I'd be interested to check for cracks anyway if it was cheap enough.

It looks like part of the casting to me but the shadow it throws looks a little suspicious.


Dan.