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bbaCJ8 · 03-28-2025, 09:13 AM

As much as I've spent most of my life making fun of Rough Country, I have to admit that their stuff has come a long way in recent years. Most of it. This TJ is, has been, and will continue to be a low-budget spare vehicle/beater. I bought their 3.25" suspension a year and a half ago and have been really impressed with it for the price. My friends own a shop and get ~25% off Rough Country so after doing some research I went ahead and ordered their SYE, rear driveshaft, HD balljoints, and winch plate for dirt cheap. Best I can tell most of their non-suspension stuff is just relabeled from other companies. Most of it was fine, well worth what they charge......but don't buy their driveshafts.

I got the Jeep together last weekend and have been fighting a driveline vibration ever since. I adjusted pinion angle all over the place, went high until it got worse, went low till it got worse, and set it in the middle where it was least severe. It wasn't terrible, but enough to be annoying and give me mechanical sympathy for the bearings. The offset pinion on the 8.8 complicates things but still shouldn't cause this. I drove it 35 miles to work yesterday, then end of day threw it on the 4 post lift to look over and take some measurements. Pinion was where it was supposed to be, everything is tight and aligned, then I eventually found the problem.....the u-joints/yokes were out of phase. Awesome, easy fix, right? Pull the slip yoke off and re-clock the splines.

But noooooo, of course it's not that easy. No clocking of splines would line them up, the damn thing was welded together about 10-15 degrees off from ever being aligned at best case.

So naturally, I pulled my driveshaft off, ground down the weld, re-clocked it (fortunately there was a pretty snug press fit so it stayed well aligned), re-welded it, installed, slapped on some paint, and drove 35 miles home

It's not perfect, but it's at least 60% better than it was. Not bad for a benchtop cut/weld on a rear driveshaft. Good enough for now, I'll take it to a local driveshaft shop to get checked/balanced after my trip. The rear 8.8 flange may be a contributing factor as well since it wasn't on there when it was originally "balanced" by the sweatshop kid in China.

03-28-2025, 09:13 AM	#36
bbaCJ8 old and boring Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 34,128	As much as I've spent most of my life making fun of Rough Country, I have to admit that their stuff has come a long way in recent years. Most of it. This TJ is, has been, and will continue to be a low-budget spare vehicle/beater. I bought their 3.25" suspension a year and a half ago and have been really impressed with it for the price. My friends own a shop and get ~25% off Rough Country so after doing some research I went ahead and ordered their SYE, rear driveshaft, HD balljoints, and winch plate for dirt cheap. Best I can tell most of their non-suspension stuff is just relabeled from other companies. Most of it was fine, well worth what they charge......but don't buy their driveshafts. I got the Jeep together last weekend and have been fighting a driveline vibration ever since. I adjusted pinion angle all over the place, went high until it got worse, went low till it got worse, and set it in the middle where it was least severe. It wasn't terrible, but enough to be annoying and give me mechanical sympathy for the bearings. The offset pinion on the 8.8 complicates things but still shouldn't cause this. I drove it 35 miles to work yesterday, then end of day threw it on the 4 post lift to look over and take some measurements. Pinion was where it was supposed to be, everything is tight and aligned, then I eventually found the problem.....the u-joints/yokes were out of phase. Awesome, easy fix, right? Pull the slip yoke off and re-clock the splines. But noooooo, of course it's not that easy. No clocking of splines would line them up, the damn thing was welded together about 10-15 degrees off from ever being aligned at best case. So naturally, I pulled my driveshaft off, ground down the weld, re-clocked it (fortunately there was a pretty snug press fit so it stayed well aligned), re-welded it, installed, slapped on some paint, and drove 35 miles home It's not perfect, but it's at least 60% better than it was. Not bad for a benchtop cut/weld on a rear driveshaft. Good enough for now, I'll take it to a local driveshaft shop to get checked/balanced after my trip. The rear 8.8 flange may be a contributing factor as well since it wasn't on there when it was originally "balanced" by the sweatshop kid in China. Last edited by bbaCJ8; 03-28-2025 at 09:15 AM.