Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!



Title pretty much explain everything...



Driving home on the highway going about 70mph, truck started vibrating and then shaking and then BOOM! Once i heard the boom i looked at my rear-view mirror and saw the driveshaft blowing off of the truck and flying off to the side of the highway. I immediately pulled over and parked the truck, after doing so I called for the truck to be towed. Now i am home and honestly don't know what to think, the driveshaft has been on for about 2 years now with no problem until today. How bad does it look do you think? easy fix? I'm so lucky that the driveshaft didn't fly off and hit someone's car to cause a major accident.



Anyways here are some pics...











































might have to get this replaced too, i guess when the driveshaft broke off it hit this before flying off...




Reply 1 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!



Wow! good to hear no one was injured. Scary

Reply 2 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!



Towed?? Twist that little knob to 4Hi and drive it home carefully! Your front u-joint has been failing of a long time now, you can tell by the heavy wear on the cross. Looks like you need a complete new driveshaft, maybe grease it a little more often, and make sure all 4 u-joint caps purge grease when greasing.



The sixth picture shows where the cross wore throught the cap and yoke, that's why the front came disconnected. The rear broke apart after the front end of the shaft went on vacation.

Reply 3 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!




Quote:








Originally Posted by landphil
View Post

Towed?? Twist that little knob to 4Hi and drive it home carefully! You're front u-joint has been failing of a long time now, you can tell by the heavy wear on the cross. Looks like you need a complete new driveshaft, maybe grease it a little more often, and make sure all 4 u-joint caps purge grease when greasing.



The sixth picture shows where the cross wore throught the cap and yoke, that's why the front came disconnected. The rear broke apart after the front end of the shaft went on vacation.



Agreed with everything. You have had a u-joint problem for awhile now. I'm sure you have had some vibrations for awhile now, and its never been greased or checked in 2 years?



4HI would have brought you home nicely.



In the 2nd picture you can see all that rusted metal dust stuck to the speedo housing on the T-case. the bearings in that (front) u-joint have been shot for awhile and griding down metal to metal for some time. This is way an Oil change is not really just an oil change. Its an inspection to look for things that need attention. Before this broke you could have grab the drive shaft and moved it with you hands to feel the freeplay in the u-joint bearings.



You ask how bad does it look. Really it just needs a new drive shaft, which if you had one in front of you would take 30 min to install and a total of 8 bolts. So it doesn't look bad but going to be a few hundred plus shipping time plus 30 min. to install.

Reply 4 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!




Quote:








Originally Posted by integlikewhoa
View Post

Agreed with everything. You have had a u-joint problem for awhile now. I'm sure you have had some vibrations for awhile now, and its never been greased or checked in 2 years?



4HI would have brought you home nicely.



I had the whole truck lubed and regreased over a year ago at the dealership but i honestly don't know if they actually did it all.



I have had vibration but it came from lack of balance from the wheel and tires.

Reply 5 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!




Quote:








Originally Posted by tonythemarine
View Post

I had the whole truck lubed and regreased over a year ago at the dealership but i honestly don't know if they actually did it all.



I have had vibration but it came from lack of balance from the wheel and tires.



Over a year is a pretty long time and I don't know how many miles ago that was. It might not been bad over a year ago. Plus its always seems like yesterday we did something.



You might be surprised after the new drive shaft is installed your "wheel and Tire" vibration might go away. Or could be that with that vibration going on for so long you couldn't tell you had a new vibration start.



Good luck man shit happens and for some reason it always costs money. doesn't look hard to fix just going to cost.

Reply 6 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!



On the bright side, it could have been much worse. I've seen driveshaft failures where wiring and brake lines were torn out, and even one where the frame was damaged. Not to mention possible injuries.



I hope I didn't seem harsh with my last post, good luck getting it fixed up. I'd recommend checking for run-out and bending of the rear diff flange and pinion shaft with a dial indicator, just to make sure it didn't get bent as well - with any luck it'll be OK.

Reply 7 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!



Wow!! I try to grease mine at every OCI 5K. I should probably drop the front to get to that little one that doesn't have a typical fitting.

Reply 8 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!



Dang Tony! Glad you and the other motorists came out okay!



Haven't seen you around here in some time, sorry it had to be about this.



You plan on contacting TW about this?

Reply 9 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!




Quote:








Originally Posted by Rhino8541
View Post

Wow!! I try to grease mine at every OCI 5K. I should probably drop the front to get to that little one that doesn't have a typical fitting.



Are you referrng to the front (4wd) driveshaft? If so, I can get all mine with no disassembly, you just have to rotate the shaft to the right spots. If that's not what you're referring to, please enlighten me.

Reply 10 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!




Quote:








Originally Posted by HoosierTacoma08
View Post

Dang Tony! Glad you and the other motorists came out okay!



Haven't seen you around here in some time, sorry it had to be about this.



You plan on contacting TW about this?



I'm thinking that could be a tough sell to Tom Wood. All the U-joints look bone dry. Look at pics 2,3,5-10. I don't think this shaft has seen grease in a long time. I would think that you would still have residual grease from a Toyota shop lube job even if it was a year ago. I do think the dealership maintenance screwed you over, but you also didn't do yourself any favors before or after the shop visit by not doing anything else yourself. Tom Wood's site states, "Poor maintenance is the number one killer of drive shafts."

Reply 11 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!



Linked from TW website:




Reply 12 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!



Yeah that carnage has nothing to do with craftsman ship of the shaft whatsoever. That kind of breakage is completely due to poor maintenance.

Reply 13 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!




Quote:








Originally Posted by johnecon2001
View Post

Yeah that carnage has nothing to do with craftsman ship of the shaft whatsoever. That kind of breakage is completely due to poor maintenance.



I didn't get the impression from him that he was looking for a free replacement, but I agree with you it was poor maintenance that killed this one. Its also been over 2 years and I don't think their warr. is that long anyways.



It says on the first page paragraph 7.

"Many times you can have a U joint that is beginning to seize up and you will not be able to observe any play in the joint. When this happens, you maybe be able to see a rusty oxidation on the u joint around the bearing cap seals."

This is what is all over the speed-o housing in pics 2 and 3. This should have been spotted at the last oil change, which hopefully wasn't over a year ago.



Page 2 1st paragraph talking about greasing the joints.

"I recommend you do this every time you change your oil and when you get back from that wet muddy four-wheeling adventure." More then likely never been done since that drive shaft was installed.



For kicks the caps that didn't break (two on the T-case, and two on the rear of the driveline), remove the clips and open them up. See how much grease is inside there.

Reply 14 : Tom Wood driveshaft blew up!



A local drive line shop should be able to cut that, weld on new yokes and rebalance it. Probably cheaper than a whole new unit.

No comments:

Post a Comment