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What do you think will fail first in the JL driveline?

twisty

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the driveshaft is always turning. If you’re running aggressive or higher caster especially theres a strong possibility you’ll get vibration. If you break a two piece shaft, the probability of other damage is very high. The strength difference is relatively minor and unnecessary. I’m all about simplifying complicated systems or removing fail points and the only real way to do that with a m210 is replacing it with an axle that doesn’t have FAD. If that’s not an option upgrading the shafts to two piece works great

brett
I was going to go one piece RCV but my shop guy went that route and talked me out of it. He didnt like the way it drove and was noisier. Per him if he were to do it again he'd go two peice. I called the RCV peeps and per them it's less then 5% difference in strength between the two. When you add the strength of the upgrade that amount is a distinction without much difference.

Still, I'd rather not have a two piece unit. If and when someone comes up with a locking hub design I'd go that route. I would have done the 44 axle replacement by dynatrac but no locking hubs. And 60s are overkill.
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D60

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Yep I'd love lockouts on the M210.

I think the other fix for driveline noise is cut and turn the inner C's. Basically Jeep was able to ignore pinion angle with rzeppas.
 

twisty

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Unless your experience is atypical, 1/2 MPG loss is essentially nothing and IMO, worth every bit of strength you'd gain with the one piece.
For the 3.6 I agree. I had a TJ with a warn kit for full floating rear and locking hubs in the front. I normally just kept them locked since it wasnt a daily driver. On occasion I would unlock them and it was a difference you could immediately feel in extra power. I'll bet with the 4.0L the mpg was greater then 1/2 but never measured it cause I didnt care.

With the extra 100hp the 3.6 or 2.0 gets you I doubt you'd feel it at all, and mpg the same.
 

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well i snapped the rear passenger axle shaft in two and broke the transfer case first. replaced the front with a two piece also and have felt that it is actually less noisy than before, gas mileage? meh, who watches mileage on a jeep anyways? im not running RCV tho, they were too slow to respond and lost a sure sale. Guess when you deal with their head sales guy you got to wait. i went with Yukon as they called me back right away, not two days later. i have been totally satisfied and have watched others break their RCV's while my yukes are still holding strong so i guess it was a blessing.
 

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twisty

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well i snapped the rear passenger axle shaft in two and broke the transfer case first. replaced the front with a two piece also and have felt that it is actually less noisy than before, gas mileage? meh, who watches mileage on a jeep anyways? im not running RCV tho, they were too slow to respond and lost a sure sale. Guess when you deal with their head sales guy you got to wait. i went with Yukon as they called me back right away, not two days later. i have been totally satisfied and have watched others break their RCV's while my yukes are still holding strong so i guess it was a blessing.
interesting, never heard of RCV's blowing before upgraded stuff. RCV's do break but it's pretty rare comparatively speaking....at least so I hope. lol

I got mine through a shop and it showed up immediatly. This was 6 months ago before covid hit. Plus it seems like RCV's are getting pretty popular too so it might explain the delay.

The bummer with RCV's is if they do take a poo, thinking your eph'd vs a likely more repairable solution with conventional stuff.
 

jlopes68

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interesting, never heard of RCV's blowing before upgraded stuff. RCV's do break but it's pretty rare comparatively speaking....at least so I hope. lol

I got mine through a shop and it showed up immediatly. This was 6 months ago before covid hit. Plus it seems like RCV's are getting pretty popular too so it might explain the delay.

The bummer with RCV's is if they do take a poo, thinking your eph'd vs a likely more repairable solution with conventional stuff.
This was long before covid. Actually almost 2 years ago now.
 

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I was going to go one piece RCV but my shop guy went that route and talked me out of it. He didnt like the way it drove and was noisier. Per him if he were to do it again he'd go two peice. I called the RCV peeps and per them it's less then 5% difference in strength between the two. When you add the strength of the upgrade that amount is a distinction without much difference.

Still, I'd rather not have a two piece unit. If and when someone comes up with a locking hub design I'd go that route. I would have done the 44 axle replacement by dynatrac but no locking hubs. And 60s are overkill.
RCV's are not noisy unless you hear a clicking which could be an issue. I went with the 2 piece because it's still under warranty and one less problem from Jeep if I need them. I'm an RCV dealer as well and have a lot of their product, from 35 spline 300m to utv products.

I sell dynatrac product as well but I think they nickle and dime the crap out of their customers. They want to reinvent the wheel on everything. To replace products, you almost have to go back to them because you cannot get it off the shelf. The Dana 60 rotor they have are thinner than normal chevy 60 rotor. The spindles usually notched in some way or another to make you come back and buy their product. Learned some of this the hard way.
 

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Hey guys, question. I have a Sahara and only plan on 33-34’s max. I don’t want to go down the slippery slope of axles as I don’t plan on more than moderate trails, enough to go camping/sight seeing off-road. I want to try the new M200 Ox Locker and wondered, since we’re in there, about upgrading the rear axles only.

Is that a good idea with the locker? Thanks
 
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I just upgraded my front drive shaft when I installed my lift, and that got me wondering if I should upgrade my rear driveshaft? wondering which one takes more stress?

then I was wondering what the weak links in the Jeep driveline might be (welds, knuckles, shafts, etc...). Realize that this is a new JL model and they have made some improvements to the durability of the driveline, but wondering what people's experience here has been. Thanks!
Its the rear DS that usually suffers first. The stressors on the front DS are the outer knuckles, that is where the failure most often happens first.

The rear DS can fail anywhere in the driveline and axles. Big Meats 37> put a lot of stress on the half shafts. Also torque spends more time at the rear than it does up front. Rear axle works in a push mode while the front axle work in the pull mode.



There’s the thought that’s the driveshaft (1310 for example) will act like a fuse in the system. Unfortunately that is really the case as other parts will typically get damage too as Sean is saying.

I think the most common part that receives damage while wheeling is the rear axle shafts. They are under tremendous load when on an incline and tire spin is a hard thing to handle. After that, it’s been front axle shafts. I don’t think the one piece RCVs are worth the negatives either, I like the two piece and retain the FAD.

brett
FUSE: YES, I build in a fuse, 1310 usually right behind the transmission or at the nose of the rear axle. Fuses WORK that is a fact. A Jeep I built using 1310 snapped on Pritchett Canyon in Moab. I was leading and he was about 6 Jeeps back. I went back and told him to freeze, put on the E brake. I crawled under and back out in less than 15 min and we kept on going. Because its that easy and quick to replace.

What I have found when using 1310 at the fuse position its that in well-built out Jeeps the 1310 will develop a vibration. It will start out barely detectable and increase over time. The moment you feel any vibe, replace it.

What I have seen on the trails over the years your most significant failure point is the radiator. I have seen it take out more guys than anything else. Most other things can be mitigated, 4 wd becomes 2 wd. When I was building my rock Jeep I did a comprehensive PoFA (Point of Failure Analysis) it resulted in my redesigning my front bumper. In the pic below you will see a green line and red. I originally built my front bumper with the brace on the nose going straight back to the radiator hoop. When I looked from an engineering view I knew that was a failure. Go nose down and the nose guard would begin to collapse and push the radiator hoop into the radiator. So I redesigned and did 'horns' that curved downward and connected the mid-way cross member and that would absorb the impact.

This then begs the question: Will it work? YES. I was driving down a 55 mph 2-lane road. As I approached an intersection, a huge 4-door caddy ran the red light and went in front of me. Not even time to hit the brakes, I hit the caddy on the rear quarter panel, blew the trunk lid off, busted out the back window, and broke the axel off its mounts. The car was totaled. I suffered no damage at all, the horns transferred the shock onto my frame and no damage. Fuses work!


Jeep Wrangler JL What do you think will fail first in the JL driveline? 29062008691
 

Jtphoto

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The “fuse” didn’t work for me. Thought I would go the same route with 1310 and left the factory axles in on a JKU to protect the new 5.38 R&P. Bad decision. The new R&P and 1310 were stronger then the axle shafts and I snapped both axles at the splines at the diff. It would have been cheaper to do another R&P.
The fix was to replace the axles with RCVs and that was the best move ever. I’m sold on RCVs. Smoother operation, less vibration, smoother steering at lock to lock and best of all, no U joint bind.
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