Drive Shaft Loose Spline Joint

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John Smith said:
Head on over the Parts Wanted section and post up. Also check out the parting out and parts for sale sections. You should easily be able to find a good used shaft.
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My concern about buying another used one is I do not know if it is good or bad till I take it to the shop. I had no idea my current one was bad until the guy at the shop started working on it.

Can I buy the new pieces just for the splined joint anywhere?
 
mattolewis said:
My concern about buying another used one is I do not know if it is good or bad till I take it to the shop. I had no idea my current one was bad until the guy at the shop started working on it.

Can I buy the new pieces just for the splined joint anywhere?
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You would know if it is good or bad if you purchased a used one from someone that knows what they are looking at.

Post up a picture of your drive shaft.
 
Hi All:

This is a good tech thread!

Steve, how would you evaluate the condition of a drive shaft slip joint?

Thanks!

Alan
 
Big Daddy said:
Had the same issue and after trying to find a good used one went back to the drive shaft shop and he set me up with a spicer slip joint that is actually a little longer than stock and he used chevy ujoints which you can find at almost any place and is alot cheaper than toyota u-joints.
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you got the dshaft shop bendover pokin. A used shaft would be better than a new spicer shaft.

Spicer parts do not belong on a toyota, EVER. at least dana/spicer driveline parts.

Enjoy your inferior easy to find spicer joints. Hope you dont need the extra angle the toy joints will allow. The dana ones wont tollerate half as much angle.

99 percent of driveline shops dont care about anything other than easy to get (for them) dana spicer replacements.
If your toyota stuff is worn they will always suggest replacing it with lo quality 1310 dana replacement joints and yokes.

Oh yeah anything you take to a driveline shop is garunteeed to be worn out according to them.

A toyota Ujoint is half the size of its spicer replacement and is twice as strong as the spicer joint.

That spicer slip has a blue anti friction coating and will still only last half as long as a non coated toyota slip.

If you have bad FJ drivelines, just upgrade to 84-95 toyota minitruck components.

The minitruck shafts are usually too long for a cruiser and only need a cheap cut and weld to shorten them at a driveline shop. Sure beats paying for new inferior stuff and paying the big money for a RETUBE and balance.

Just my opinion.
 
Good information!

I started reading this hoping to find out if there is a cure/fix for a loose slip joint... doesn't seem so.

Are they replacement only?
 
If it's just your rear shaft that is bad, a solution may be closer than you think. The front shaft doesn't get 10% of the wear the rear does, and all the shop should have to charge you for is shortening the tube.

Then you have more time to get more options in finding ANOTHER low mileage front shaft, or having something else made.

If your shop doesn't like the shortening idea, that proves they're just out to sell you something.

Best

Mark A.
 
Update for all... I went back to the shop today to understand what was too loose on the drive shaft. It turns out the slip joint was fine, but the seal surface has some wear so they were concerned that grease would leak out of the joint. They also showed me that the previous modification had taken the drive shaft out of time.

They are going to go ahead shorten , balance, and put new u-joints in it, and of course get it back in time.

Thanks for the help guys.

Matt
 
mattolewis said:
Update for all... I went back to the shop today to understand what was too loose on the drive shaft. It turns out the slip joint was fine, but the seal surface has some wear so they were concerned that grease would leak out of the joint. They also showed me that the previous modification had taken the drive shaft out of time.

They are going to go ahead shorten , balance, and put new u-joints in it, and of course get it back in time.

Thanks for the help guys.

Matt
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Seal surface wear? :lol: By "time" I believe you mean phase. If the shop is going to install some crappy non greaseable China ujoints tell them to skip it and source your own OEM or quality Japanese aftermarket.
 
John Smith said:
Seal surface wear? :lol: By "time" I believe you mean phase. If the shop is going to install some crappy non greaseable China ujoints tell them to skip it and source your own OEM or quality Japanese aftermarket.
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Being a stock driveline and fine spline it takes about 10 seconds to pull off the slip and rotate it a few splines till it is timed/phased properly at both ends. (free not work needed).

X2 on the replacement joints. Unless they are loose or shot, 20 year old tight toyota joints are better than any parts store new joint.
 
Big Daddy said:
Well in my opinion yours isn't worth much when your're broken down on the side of a hill. This inferior parts as you call them has been installed for over 8 years and still very tight . Yeah and I bet you run a small block Chevy huh ?
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Never confuse luck with skill. :doh:

I keep a 1310 joint and chevy starter bolts in my toyota just to keep guys like you moving in the woods. :popcorn:
 
The driveline is out of phase because when it was shortened by the PO, the shop that put it back together welded it out of phase. So no mater how you take the spline off and put it back on, it was always a little out of phase. The new shop is going to line it back up when they weld it.

It is a grease-able joint they are putting back in. I looked at the new parts they are putting in, and they look exactly the same as the parts they are taking out; grease fitting in the same spot, same diameter, same travel, etc. I am not having the spline replaced.
 
Poser said:
You would know if it is good or bad if you purchased a used one from someone that knows what they are looking at.

Post up a picture of your drive shaft.
Click to expand...

Here are a couple of pics of the drive shaft back from the shop.

Thanks for the help guys.

Matt
drive_shaft_3.webp
drive_shaft_1.webp
drive_shaft_2.webp
 
Well, would you look at that!

Stock Land Cruiser three-speed u-joints which are very close in size to a 1310 joint.

:lol:



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Poser said:
Well, would you look at that!

Stock Land Cruiser three-speed u-joints which are very close in size to a 1310 joint.
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Its not the size that matters mate.

Its the materials and quality.

A toy joint IS smaller than a 1310. It does not matter tho. While I have no clue about the cruiser joints, I have been trashin mini joints fir ten years and I been trashin chevys for about 20 years.

I will say I can kill a chevy 1310 dana spicer joint on command in my ol chevy. I can only wear out toyota joints.

Anyone have a broken toyota joint for pics? By broke I mean crushed needles still greasy or busted cross/ears? Not blue and eat out the side from neglect.


I wish someone made a D44 axleshaft wioth a toyota ujoint in it.
 
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