nvp1971

Hi everyone,

About two or three days ago my 1998 Cherokee Sport (4.0, 152k miles) starting making a short ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee squeak. This squeak happens whether the vehicle is on or off (pushed or coasted manually up and down the driveway) and when it's driven forwards or backwards. I do not hear the squeak when I brake and it's unclear if I hear the squeak when I drive over, say, 30 or 35mph. It's entirely possible that it's present there as well but I am unable to identify it over road noise even with the windows open and when I hang my head out the window to try and listen.

The squeak itself seems to be coming from the rear of the vehicle.

At first I was almost entirely convinced that the issue was the need to clean and/or replace brake pads but would this be the case if I heard the squeak while in reverse?

I also tried to rock the Jeep back and forth and push it up and down on the front end and back end to see if I could replicate the squeak that way. But no, doing so would not cause the Jeep to squeak at all. I was hoping that finding a squeak this way would help me isolate the problem to, say, bushings instead of brakes or shocks. Obviously, my test was not helpful here.

Does anyone have other suggestions? Maybe a u-joint in the rear? Or a wheel bearing of set of wheel bearings?

Rearwardassist

Can you pull the back drum off and check the breaks.

nvp1971

I'm totally fine with this but would brakes even be considered if I was hearing the squeaking while in reverse?

Just curious.

nickxj94

Its a ujoint in the rear drive shaft

nvp1971

Single ujoint or two ujoints?

Do you have a part #?

Is this a suitable replacement part?

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Ca...369_0325309025

Or this guy:

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Ca...269_0157738950

Thanks everyone for your responses thus far!

nickxj94

I would just replace both while you have it out and just get some cheapos with grease zerts if you don't wheel it very often. If it sees the trails alot I would pony up for spicer ujoints that's what's in them from factory and there 4x stronger than cheap part store ujoints.

nvp1971

Uggh, what a chore!

The good news is that I'm glad I decided to do this (both ujoints -- front and back). The bad news is that the rear ujoint is so corroded that I ended up compromising/destroying the C-clips that are attached to both ends!!! F!

I got the drive shaft out in about 15mins. Per the variety of tutorials online and the "Haynes Repair Manual" series of Jeep books (I use the same series of Bible on my '75 MGB -- oh man, do I own any new cars?!) I had 6/8 of the caps out of the ujoints in an hour or so but the one on the rear end went from bad to worse.

I ended up using dykes to cut out the rubber fittings around the caps but I still have huge hungs of C-clips attached to the caps. Plus the caps are firmly corroded onto the ujoint.

Yes, I guess this is probably root cause for the problems I have seen but if anyone has suggestions about getting the broken C-clips out of the notches I would be thrilled! I'm thinking that I will take an electric drill and new bit to the caps and work around the area with the partial C-clips but would love to hear any other suggestions. And no, I'm not gonna buy another drive shaft and start fresh... I'm far too stubborn for that. :-)

nickxj94

I used a hammer and a chisel to get them out

Radi

Torch or sawzall the center cross out then knock the caps out through the center.

nvp1971

Don't have a sawzall and not sure I'm going to buy one for just this job; don't have a lot of use for one in general. Maybe there's a rental place nearby, tho, so I'll have to check.

Do you think a hacksaw could also be of use? Don't mind putting in the elbow grease so long as it works.

nvp1971

For 6 of the C-clips I used a hammer and screwdriver. Given the condition of the remaining C-clip fragments and how they're stuck in the notches I'm not sure how labor intensive it would be to use a chisel. :-( It's worth a shot, tho, and I may give it a whirl for 15-30 minutes before I try and saw it. At very least I'm curious as to how things will turn out.

mylast96xj

HF has sawzalls cheeeep
tools don't cost money...lack of tools cost's money

xKHANx

Here is what I did when I swapped mine out.

1. Broke all C-Clips when trying to remove them.
2. Drank a cocktail
3. Sprayed clips with PB
4. Got a socket and BFH and pliers, held socket with pliers whacked socket with hammer until cap pushed in a little from the clip edges.
5. drank another cocktail
6. Took a chisel and same BFH and smacked on a broken end of a clip and got it to move a bit and it popped out.
7. Drank another cocktail
8. Cleaned out channel with dremel and wire wheel.
9. Repeat for each broken clip.

nvp1971

This is essentially the same tack I took yesterday, well, minus all the cocktails (3 glasses of wine -- but hey it was a Monday!). I did hit it with a bunch of PB after a round of WD-40. The caps are just not budging. I can only assume that's the root cause of my vehicle misbehaving; the ujoint itself is kinda stiff and I'm sure once the caps come off all the uglies will be revealed.

Damn, tho. Why do I keep having that song "a three hour tour, a three hour tour" going through my head?! It shouldn't have taken this long at all! Maybe next time I'll do this over at someone's house who's got the tools that would've gotten me over the hurdle way faster that I was able to this time. :-(

nvp1971

I ended up doing something alone these lines this morning. Had a rain storm coming, and had NO INTENTIONS of working on the Jeep outside in a downpour/thunderstorm. :-)

End result is that I beat the cr@p out of the caps coupled with a copious amount of PB. After I got the caps down deep enough I used a chisel and hammer to move the broken clips around in the groove until after even more PB they were free to hammer upwards and downwards.

I got the drive shaft back in about half hour ago and the rain is just starting now. The only thing that sucks is one of the bolts that attaches the brackets to the clips in the rear of the drive train snapped off and will need to be drilled out. Seriously?! The brackets seem to be really snug otherwise and the Jeep drives but I will have to take it to my local service guy to get the bracket fixed ASAP.

I'll probably just head to Napa and get a new bracket and bolts -- using my wife's car -- and clench my cheeks before I drive it over to the local service guy (< 1mi away, actually, 1000 feet away).

Thanks everyone for all of the prompt and courteous responses. I only hope to return the favor in the future!