Broken U joint straps – repair

On our trip to Iron Gap, Jenny was almost back up the hill when her rear diff tagged a rock. The hit was at just the right angle to shear the straps off the U joint at the pinion yoke. The drive shaft was hanging down thrashing about.

We pulled the rear shaft and she made her way back to the shop in front drive. I was going to move her front shaft to the rear, but I was not able to get the broken bits of bolt out of the yoke with the tools I had on hand.

Back at the shop, with the Jeep on the lift, I used a center punch and a hammer to carefully turn the broken bits of bolt out of the yoke. With the bolts extracted, I put a new U joint in the drive shaft and installed replacement bolts and straps.

I am considering modifying the yoke to use U bolts instead of the straps. I think they might stand up to a hit slightly better than the bolts and straps. At least they would be easier to repair on the trail.