I pulled the front section of my propeller shaft and flexing the universal joints there's no play but both joints are notchy in the straight position. So, there is wear. Since these are not serviceable I'm wondering . . . run or replace? I'm open to any opinions.

 

Was it making noise?


Also, did you mark the orientation of the flanges? It's important they get bolted back together clock to the same position the came apart.

 

Heres a section of the manual & a parts description

 

No noise and yes to witness marks. There's smooth rotation except for a very distinct notch felt at the straight position in both joints 1 and 2. If these were serviceable joints I'd replace them. I don't remember people having to replace DSM universal joints that were serviceable.

So, the question is, should I pop for the big money now or does this driveshaft still have some life left. I use this car for cross country driving and try to keep it as reliable as possible.

 

[QUOTE=MinusPrevious;11734373]Heres a section of the manual & a parts description

The sleeve yoke appears to be in near new condition.

 

How many miles on the shaft? And why did you disconnect it? You must have suspected something?

 

The car is a 2003 with 116K miles. I decided to replace the transmission since the original has had a vibration in 5th gear since almost new. Mitsu has a TSB out on this that says the vibration is due to a bad input shaft and worn 5th gear and applies to early US cars only and mine is an early car.

Everyone has their own way of doing things. One of the things I do is pull is the front portion of the propeller shaft. This allows the transfer case to be moved towards the passenger side of the car and out of the way.

 

Thought maybe the maintenance schedule noted a replacement interval, but didnt see that.

2 schools of thought IMO. If youre keeping it, and drive long trips, maybe its best to
R/R it or If its not making any noise or vibration, keep running it (if it ain't broke=)

 

I did a forum search and found there's a number of people reporting bad propeller shafts and I also find there's a couple of aftermarket replacement shafts available. I don't think these parts would exist if the problem didn't exist.

I don't have a current price for an OEM shaft but a forum member reported a price of about $2400. And it used to be that replacing three universal joints, if you did it yourself, ran about $30.

Edit: I have the answer. The FSM for my 2003 says to check the u-joints for smooth operation. In a manual for a later year it reads, "Hold the tube of propeller shaft by one hand, and apply force by the other hand to the flange yoke in flection direction for checking flection. If showing a sign of catch in the flection direction is recognized, replace the propeller shaft with a new one."

Thanks guys

 

Do these videos help you?

 

I replaced a u-joint on my DSM. The propeller shaft front yoke leaked transfer case gear oil and there was a recall. It had a propeller shaft of similar design to the Evo. Rather than take my car to the dealer for the recall I chose to buy the campaign part and do it myself. It came with 3 or 4 snap rings sets of various thicknesses. I forget how but you had to measure and determine which set of snap rings to use.

The problem is the Evo propeller shaft has what is termed caulked universal joints. I haven't examined them closely but my understanding is that there is no snap ring groove. I know that on some u-joints of this type the caps are held in place by injected plastic and some are staked in place. There may be other methods. In any case, if trying to repair, special measuring devices are needed to center the spider and then brackets are welded on to hold the caps in place. That, and where do you get replacement parts for an unserviceable part?

 

Contact the YT'r Jafromobile (Vid above). Im sure he knows how to do the EvO driveline. Ive messaged him before regarding balance shafts & he responded

 

Gotcha, I used his line of videos before to service the lobro joint and it was highly helpful. The Evo's lobro joint was almost perfectly similar to the DSM, so I didn't know if the same applied to the U-joints.

I'd echo MinusPrevious's comments about contacting Jafromobile at this point. Can you just replace the affected joint from someone who's selling a used driveshaft?

 

Wow! This is so helpful and I enjoyed it. You are making me into a prop shaft engineer too!

 

Evo universal joints are staked. I googled up a MOOG universal joint by searching on Evo. Their universal joint is grooved to accept an internal snap ring. The trouble here is the inner sides of the ears on the Mitsubishi drive shaft (I'm tired of calling it a propeller shaft) are not flat but taper. Any snap ring would only bear at one point and while I'm no engineer this doesn't sound right to me.

Anyway, I've got the money and will spend it once I get over having to pay that enormous price for what should be a simple and inexpensive repair.