[devious1]

So I'm driving down the road tonight or my girlfriend is, I'm in the passenger seat buzzing. We started getting a really bad vibration that sounded just like a flat tire but the truck was driving fine. We pulled into a gas station and I looked over the truck. Nothing looked out of the normal! WTF So I started driving it about 50 mph down the road and boom. I hear crap beat swinging around hitting everything under the truck and this time when I pulled over I could see the drive shaft was not where it should have been. It broke straight off at the transmission.

So tomorrow it's time to place the U joints and probably the carrier bearing while I'm at it. So on the very front of the drive shaft you have the shaft, the U joint and what is the name for the part slides into the trany and U joint connects to? It got beat up in the fight.

 

[truckchick78]

Its called the drive shaft yolk.

 

[devious1]

There you go...thanks!

 

[nissanmadness]

Its called the drive shaft yolk.

Only eggs have yolk's, drivelines have yoke's! LOL!:laugh:

 

[paris1]

Only eggs have yolk's, drivelines have yoke's! LOL!:laugh:

yokes! (no appostrophe):laugh:

 

[nissanmadness]

yokes! (no appostrophe):laugh:

YIKES!

 

[chaz]

there was nothing known prior to this ,noise clunking when shifting,slight vibe when driving,just decided to let go?

 

[Zero Six LE]

So I'm driving down the road tonight or my girlfriend is, I'm in the passenger seat buzzing. We started getting a really bad vibration that sounded just like a flat tire but the truck was driving fine. We pulled into a gas station and I looked over the truck. Nothing looked out of the normal! WTF So I started driving it about 50 mph down the road and boom. I hear crap beat swinging around hitting everything under the truck and this time when I pulled over I could see the drive shaft was not where it should have been. It broke straight off at the transmission.

So tomorrow it's time to place the U joints and probably the carrier bearing while I'm at it. So on the very front of the drive shaft you have the shaft, the U joint and what is the name for the part slides into the trany and U joint connects to? It got beat up in the fight.

Are you past the powertrain warranty?

 

[devious1]

Truck started having a slight vibration about a week ago and wheels were tight and just got rebalanced so my next thinking was maybe for some odd reason the drive shaft was out of balance. No way on earth did it give me a heads up that crap was about to go sour.

I am well past warranty with 135,000 miles. I figured it up last night and the repairs should be under a 100 bucks with me doing it. My only problem is that I can't find anyone that sells the yoke. Mine has a big chunk of metal missing where the U joint fits in and I'm afraid that if not replaced it is going to give me problems again.

 

[JohninNJ]

Can we get a Pic...so I can learn some moRE!!!!

:hi:

 

[Zero Six LE]

Truck started having a slight vibration about a week ago and wheels were tight and just got rebalanced so my next thinking was maybe for some odd reason the drive shaft was out of balance. No way on earth did it give me a heads up that crap was about to go sour.

I am well past warranty with 135,000 miles. I figured it up last night and the repairs should be under a 100 bucks with me doing it. My only problem is that I can't find anyone that sells the yoke. Mine has a big chunk of metal missing where the U joint fits in and I'm afraid that if not replaced it is going to give me problems again.

Looks like you will have to find a salvage yard for that yoke. It costs quite a bit for the shaft and yoke from the dealer.

 

[devious1]

Today in the daylight this rear section is not looking real good ether but I will fix the front, clean it up, and see how things go.

On the yoke, yes I may be driving to Houston, TX. They are the only place I can find one in Texas.

 

[nissanmadness]

Truck started having a slight vibration about a week ago and wheels were tight and just got rebalanced so my next thinking was maybe for some odd reason the drive shaft was out of balance. No way on earth did it give me a heads up that crap was about to go sour.

I am well past warranty with 135,000 miles. I figured it up last night and the repairs should be under a 100 bucks with me doing it. My only problem is that I can't find anyone that sells the yoke. Mine has a big chunk of metal missing where the U joint fits in and I'm afraid that if not replaced it is going to give me problems again.

I'm amazed that you didn't get a stronger indication of a problem sooner. Usually a bad drive shaft u-joint will cause a vibration and you can usually hear a steady bearing cap growl while driving, not to mention clunking when shifting, stopping and taking off from a stop. The part your looking for is called a tail shaft yoke, if it's in the transmission end. The other half it connects to is the drive shaft yoke. If the ear is broken off the drive shaft yoke, a good drive shaft shop can cut off the old yoke and weld in a new yoke, and rebalance the shaft if needed. If the tail shaft yoke ear is broken, it will probably need replacement. Try the bone yards or God forbid, the dealer. Well I just saw your pictures. It may not be as bad as you think. The tail shaft yoke looks ok, take out the snap rings, drive out the old bearing caps and clean everything up. So long as the hole where the bearing cap goes through is not distorted and the snap ring groove is clean, you'll be ok on that end. Now picture #4 scares me, it looks as though a part of the yoke ear is broken off. Is that correct? If so, check around for a drive shaft shop, they can cut the old yoke off and weld in a new yoke like I stated earlier. Lotsa luck. P.S. check your transmission mount too.

 

[devious1]

I'm amazed that you didn't get a stronger indication of a problem sooner. Usually a bad drive shaft u-joint will cause a vibration and you can usually hear a steady bearing cap growl while driving, not to mention clunking when shifting, stopping and taking off from a stop. The part your looking for is called a tail shaft yoke, if it's in the transmission end. The other half it connects to is the drive shaft yoke. If the ear is broken off the drive shaft yoke, a good drive shaft shop can cut off the old yoke and weld in a new yoke, and rebalance the shaft if needed. If the tail shaft yoke ear is broken, it will probably need replacement. Try the bone yards or God forbid, the dealer.

Yeah none of that happened. Like I said...A slight vibration that felt like something was out of balance. Yes, god forbid the dealer. I don't want to go there. Like I said I will take a 4 hour trip to Houston before going to the dealer.

 

[bwarren228]

I just replaced my u-joint the other day. I was getting a slight vibration so I got under the truck to check things out. Found the slightest amt. of slack in it so I changed it. All is well now. I have about 100k miles

 

[dj_android]

Could this have been avoided in some way? The drive shaft looks kinda rusty.

 

[Zero Six LE]

Could this have been avoided in some way? The drive shaft looks kinda rusty.

It's not the driveshaft that caused the failure. The dry bearings in the u joint journals caused it. Once the bearings became pulverized, the extra space in the u joint allowed imbalance to the point of failure at high speed.

 

[devious1]

Could this have been avoided in some way? The drive shaft looks kinda rusty.

Yes, maybe that could have been greased more but they have been greased. Yes the drive shaft is rusty but if you paint it you run into balance issues and thats the reason Nissan doesn't paint them.

These things snap thats a part of life but I have never had one snap in the front and like this one did.

 

[5speed_Frontier]

Yah by looking at those pics it seems like that might be a problem. Hahahaha. yah thats definitely problem. sorry to hear about that man.

 

[Devius1]

..These things snap thats a part of life but I have never had one snap in the front and like this one did.

^You had someone watch'n over ya that day... front failures can be catastrophic(pole-vault).

+1 for regular inspections to drivelines..