Tatton DC Failure (1 Viewer)

[Dreamin Wheelin]

I bought front and rear DC drivelines from Tatton October 2015. I greased them every 5k including the DC needle zerk. In March I had Slee add chromoly axles and 5.29 diff gears. Slee found the rear slip yoke had seized, and I assumed it was due to lack of grease and driving during the winter. I purchased a new rear in April and installed it at 189250 miles. The rear driveline DC joint failed on the highway with less than 5k miles (July 21, 2018) on it. I had greased all zerks include the DC needle zerk about every 1k miles due to issue with a previous yoke seizing. The new driveline was installed at 189250 miles, greased at 190100, greased except for DC at 191500, greased at 193083, greased at 193900 except for DC and failed at 194010. I was doing about 70mph when the DC joint seized causing the transmission bellhousing to crack. I contacted Curtis to determine warranty and recourse due to the damage. He replied with the following, “hi. you can see they dried out from lack of grease. not under warranty”. Attached are the pictures I sent him, you be the judge. The only recourse I have is to warn others about his drivelines.

The second failure was the DC joint of the drvieline and after only 5k miles with grease every 1k there is no one else to blame but the manufacture - Tatton


97 FZJ80 5.5" lift - OME Comp front w/ 20mm spacer, OME J w/ 30mm spacer, 2" shock extenders on OME L's, 3.75 front bump extension, 4" rear bump extension, 37" STT Pros, 5.29 gears, chromoly axles, Slee arms, DC front.... rear DC seized at 70mph and cracked my transmission Thanks a lot Tatton

 

[CJF]

Grease every 1K?

Jeebus; mine are lucky if they get hit every 100K.

 

[baldilocks]

You should poll the audience in order to find out how often this happens.

 

[richardlillard1]

So every thousand miles you were pumping grease into the slip yoke whether it need it or not...I’m thinking you turned that driveshaft into a nice hydraulic ram/ticking time bomb.

I’m not a fan of my front Tatton DC shaft (though I try to keep a lot of the complaining to a minimum because it was free with the purchase of some axles), but I don’t think this one was Tatton’s fault.

 

[-Spike-]

So every thousand miles you were pumping grease into the slip yoke whether it need it or not...I’m thinking you turned that driveshaft into a nice hydraulic ram/ticking time bomb.

Debatable. When I grease my (now Tundra-OEM) front DC and rear stock (joints, anyway) driveshafts I fill the slipjoint until grease comes out the splines, with a manual pump grease gun. The slipjoints can be (very slowly) compressed by hand. It might be the type of grease I use (Valvoline synthetic with moly) or the slipjoints might be excessively worn (but they don't feel worn), or I might just be flirting with disaster. I'd like to believe there'd be a lot more failures like this reported if it were possible to damage the driveshaft or other components this way, given the number of grease monkeys working at Iffy-Lubes armed with pneumatic grease guns and not many ****s to give. I mean, in theory it makes sense that you could damage something, but I find it unlikely that, if it were a concern, the manufacturers would have continued to build them this way when it would be so easy to incorporate a relief hole to prevent it.

I just did a google search for 'grease slip joint drive shaft damage' and in the first two pages of results the only mentions of any concern with over-greasing a slip joint are on 'Mud and another Toyota forum (that probably got their info on 'Mud). No other articles or forums mention any concern, including Jeep and big-rig people. In fact, there were several tutorials that made statements like 'you can't over-grease a slip joint' and 'there's no such thing as too much grease'. I call BS on this 'Mud-centric myth. In fact, I blame it for my slip-joint failing in my first front Slee DC driveshaft, since I was too paranoid to pump it up. Since then, they get properly greased. That was an expensive lesson.

 

[Sarmajor]

Over greasing the slip joints turns the driveshaft into a hydraulic ram that loads up all of the related driveshaft components. I am not surprised that it failed.

 

[ccslider]

Sounds like you over greased the drive shaft.

How much grease were you pumping in every 1000 miles??
Did you notice the issue getting worse after the first few thousand?

So because of your .. how do I put this.. umm lack of knowing. It's immediately someone else's fault.

Furthermore why should the manufacturer put relief valves for not following their printed instructions? I guess it's the same reason why we need stickers to not put fingers in rotating equipment.

 

[BILT4ME]

There is a weep hole in the end of the slip yoke. If you are jamming your truck in the mud, then you MAY have plugged that hole. Otherwise, the chance of over-greasing is minimal, as the grease can also come out the opposite end of the yoke where the crimp seal rides on the smooth part of the shaft.

I recently helped replace the transmission on a truck with a failed DC front shaft that hit the side of the transmission and broke a hole in the transmission and shattered the bell housing. The interior tip of the DC end was blue as if it was never lubed. It was melted in the center of the DC part and the cross exploded and took the flanges with it.

I do NOT know if it was a Tatton brand, but it DID have the Spicer ends on it, as evidenced by the extra thickness in the flange. This also made it so the nuts were not fully threaded on the studs / bolts on both ends of the shaft.

Maybe there's more to this than everyone wants to admit and because there is always a scapegoat reason for it.

This shaft had 4000 miles on it, 4" lift, 97 LX450.

 

[danthman114]

time for a manual trans and an atlas 2 transfer case... and driveshaft

 

[baldilocks]

There is a weep hole in the end of the slip yoke. If you are jamming your truck in the mud, then you MAY have plugged that hole. Otherwise, the chance of over-greasing is minimal, as the grease can also come out the opposite end of the yoke where the crimp seal rides on the smooth part of the shaft.

I recently helped replace the transmission on a truck with a failed DC front shaft that hit the side of the transmission and broke a hole in the transmission and shattered the bell housing. The interior tip of the DC end was blue as if it was never lubed. It was melted in the center of the DC part and the cross exploded and took the flanges with it.

I do NOT know if it was a Tatton brand, but it DID have the Spicer ends on it, as evidenced by the extra thickness in the flange. This also made it so the nuts were not fully threaded on the studs / bolts on both ends of the shaft.

Maybe there's more to this than everyone wants to admit and because there is always a scapegoat reason for it.

This shaft had 4000 miles on it, 4" lift, 97 LX450.

My front spicer DC has 20k on it lubed maybe twice. The rear spicer DC has about 10k and was lubed upon install and once since then. I’m not nice to my drivelines either as told to me by my driveline builder of 20 years. The guy state this has happen to him twice. Who do you know that this has happened to twice? DC joints are not a new thing. My 2005 Dodge 2500 has one on the front shaft. I never greased it for 6 years and 60k thinking it was maintenance free like all the other joints and it still runs well.

I want to know how many people have ever had this happen.

 

[Anvil]

I have a 97 Fzj80 with a Slee 6" lift and 37's. In 2015 I participated in a group buy from Tattom. I replaced both shafts. They lasted less than a year. I then used a local custom drive shaft company... they rebuilt the shafts using Spicer ujoints and yokes. It's been two years now and no problems.

I would highly recommend a local driveshaft company. The company I used actually got under the rig and measured angles and lengths! I was impressed! Just my 2 cents.

 

[Razorbackcruiser]

I had to replace my Tatton due to a failure in the DC “cage”. It might have had 20k on it. I greased it religiously. Tossed it and had a Tacoma rear retubed and rebuilt by a local guy. I’ve run it almost as long as the Tatton with no problems. Didn’t post on here when it happened as I didn’t even call the guy to see if he would make it right. Didn’t seem fair. After a little research seems these shafts are hit or miss.

 

[tayzoid1]

I'm bumping in old thread to comment and also warn, my tattons rear shaft just s*** the bed with Less than 10,000 miles and less than six months of use. Curtis said I didn't grease it enough And recommended greasing everything every 3000 miles. Which is completely absurd Curtis said it's going to cost me around $150 to fix the shaft after I just paid him almost $400 foreign six months ago

 

[NLXTACY]

I'm bumping in old thread to comment and also warn, my tattons rear shaft just s*** the bed with Less than 10,000 miles and less than six months of use. Curtis said I didn't grease it enough And recommended greasing everything every 3000 miles. Which is completely absurd Curtis said it's going to cost me around $150 to fix the shaft after I just paid him almost $400 foreign six months ago

This is horrible to hear. Unfortunately I’ve been getting more of their 80 customers with this exact same issue. You are #9 I know of now. Sucks.

 

[Heckraiser]

My Tatton DC front is still working fine. Can't recall exactly how long I've had it, but at least a few years. My rear, on the other hand, has been run dry at the slip yoke and makes a lot of racket (OEM). Greasing shuts it up for a few days, but then it's back to making noise.

 

[baldilocks]

I'm bumping in old thread to comment and also warn, my tattons rear shaft just s*** the bed with Less than 10,000 miles and less than six months of use. Curtis said I didn't grease it enough And recommended greasing everything every 3000 miles. Which is completely absurd Curtis said it's going to cost me around $150 to fix the shaft after I just paid him almost $400 foreign six months ago

What brand of components does he use? Where did yours fail? I’ve always been skeptical of his product due to the low price.

 

[Rwhat]

I have had mine for 8-9 years. So far so good.

 

[smritte]

Similar issue, different brand, different vehicle. Mine was a custom from JE Reel. When I tore down the DC to see why it was binding and noisy, I didn't see any stamping giving me a clue who made it. I took it to a local shop and he said I was lucky it didn't disintegrate. Seems some of the drive shaft manufactures are using cheap Chinese parts. The shop I took it to said they see quite a few. Everything was replaced with Spicer.

 

[IronCladLou]

I have had mine for 8-9 years. So far so good.

Yeah, I've had mine installed for over 5 years and 50k miles and no issues. Minimal greasing on my part.

 

[tayzoid1]

What brand of components does he use? Where did yours fail? I’ve always been skeptical of his product due to the low price.

Everything on mine is spicer and according to Marshall Shepard, greasing every 3k is the norm for spicer. I find that absolutely ridiculous and I'll be doing something different