How much damage?

[K.13]

Say someone were to blow out their universal in the rear and had no choice to drive on the front axle. How much damage would that do to the transmission and the front axle?

 

[jakec]

none unless somethings wrong with the front end or transmission. i drove home about 20 miles on one front axle 2 years ago. i broke both rear axles and the front driverside axle but had a locker in front so i put it in 4 high and came on back.

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

you can do it at slow speeds for short distances. Once you blow a rear ujoint & pull the rear driveshaft all the transfer case fluid will leak out. You don't wanna drive far without fluid in the transfer case.

 

[Crazy4diesels]

If you have a SYE or a Rubicon the yoke will stay in the transfer. If not, you'll lose the oil, like Bounty Hunter said - not good. A friend drove his 79 CJ5 for a whole summer on the front end after breaking a rear axle shaft - didn't hurt anything. He avoided the highway, though - mostly due to the broken shaft.
-John

 

[xjmarc]

Depends on what t-case you have. Later versions have an external slip yoke and the oil won't leak out. That being said I drove mine over an hour in front wheel drive with a locker. Just had to take it slow and let off the gas on turns. Without a locker it wouldn't have been an issue.

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

He has a stock YJ, so it's a 231 transfer case and will lose all transfer case fluid once the rear shaft is pulled.

 

[xjmarc]

Wasn't sure what year they went from internal to external on the slip yoke.

 

[jps4jeep]

Wasn't sure what year they went from internal to external on the slip yoke.

as far as I know, the YJ uses a roller barrel style bearing on the out put, tj's cases do not use this bearing, they use a solid bearing. I recall when I installed my SYE in my yj, it converts the YJ bearings to a tj style bearing that does not allow ATF to pass, not sure if this is the same as internal/ external. The slip shaft on a stock 231 for a YJ and TJ are interchangable.

to answer the OP, I drove around for about a week like that with my blazer until I could afford to replace gears in the rear axle.

 

[xjmarc]

By internal and external I meant the slip yoke went inside a housing or didn't. The early models went into a housing and would leak if you pulled the shaft. The later models, 96+ from what I've found, have an exposed slip yoke with a rubber boot and don't leak if you pull the shaft. I have heard of people using a soda bottle like the 20oz size cut and duct taped over the housing to catch the fluid but I wouldn't drive very long that way.

 

[K.13]

Thanks for all the replies.
I got the shaft back on today. I capped of the transfer case with a lot of tuck tape, so not too terribly much leaked out I don't think. I kept it slow and as short as possible.
Luckily I didn't bend the drive shaft.... tore the hell out of my exhaust pipe adn muffler. Another fix for another day. Next replacement is going to be wheel bearings then all the rest of the universals. After that, Defiantly going to put a slip yoke eliminator in it, also because I plan on getting a 4" lift kit.
Thanks again for the heads up. I will drop whatever oil is left and try and get some of the Redline MT 90 stuff.

 

[superj]

I drove for a few weeks around san antonio when all the bolts heads flew off the ring gear on my 85 trooper. I had to hold it in 4h because it kept trying to pop out but it drove fine, otherwise

 

[jps4jeep]

in a pinch, I used a dog food can and taper it to the out put. zero leaking.


Xjmarc, thats news to me, I looked at a stock 01 231 last night and it has a slip shaft same as a yj that goes into the back of the case. not saying your wrong, just still don't understand. the rubi-case has the slip shaft in the drive shaft ??

 

[jps4jeep]

Found a pic of the dog can.

 

[superj]

hell of a job to get home!! use what you have available.

 

[xjmarc]

On my buddy's TJ you can see the slip yoke (why I referred to it as external) and on my YJ it's inside a housing. My XJ also had the external type.