231 El Cheapo SYE

Badcop

Who Dat? Who Der?
Location
Hyrum UT
I saw this on one of the many boards I visit daily, I have a spare slip yolk for a XJ 231, is there a way to modify it to fit as an SYE. I was thinking about drilling and bolting it directly to the output shaft or even welding it directly on. Any thaughts? Discuss-
 

Caleb

Well-Known Member
Location
Riverton
the hack and tap method...there is a reason Tom Woods andmany other driveline shops wont even sell you a driveline if they know its going to be used on a hack and tap SYE...9 out of 10 times the tap will be slightly off center or skewed and you will get vibes no matter what, but most the time you blame the driveline for vibes so they dont even want to deal with it...so in my opinion, skip the HaT method, save a few extra pennies and get a nice HD setup...
 

4x4phil

Registered User
Location
Salt Lake City
I've heard a lot of people talk about this, but never seen it done. Superjpr has a really good point about the vibes from an offset bolt. The hack and tap kits are really cheap for a tj, like under 100$ not including the driveshaft. As far as making your own using an xj slip yoke the straps are closed so you'd never have a way to get your driveshaft off and on. You'd need a strap type yoke that bolts. Most of the time people want to run some sort of a dual cardon setup off of the transfercase in which case I'm not sure how you could even find a slip yoke that would bolt in like the ones you see on the front driveshaft of an xj for example. The 231 output shaft is also pretty hard metal and I don't know how people tap metal that hard, it must be possible, but I wouldn't wanna do it. Plus when you push in the yoke all the way on a yj or most xj's it smashes the seal, so you'd have to find something to put inside the yoke, like one or many washers, to space it out far enough, which could cause another balance problem. On a tj which is what I think you have judging by your pic, you wouldn't run into that problem, just the strap problem. I've always wondered if you could call a driveshaft shop and have them build a slipyoke with the the straps or a flange and use that. For a tj they already sells something like that. Even if you could do that, and drill the hole straight, and tap it well, and find a way to space it far enough out (if by chance you do own a yj or xj), you'd end up making your driveshaft shorter. I usually drive xj's so that was never a concern of mine, but for a yj, tj, owner this could cause a problem. One time I ruined my rear driveshaft on my xj in moab and had to remove my slipyoke put a ziptie inside and tap it on so I wouldn't loose oil in my transfercase, then drive home to slc in front wheel drive. So I spent a lot of time contemplating a really cheep way to do a sye. I came to the concusion that it was more worth my time to just keep a spare driveshaft.
 
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Badcop

Who Dat? Who Der?
Location
Hyrum UT
This is an open strap yolk, no idea what it came off of but it does have the same spline as my 231 (found it in the garage o' doom). The TJ in the pic was the old alaska wheeler, I cant constitute ruining a 20k dollar rig yet. I have 4 XJ's in the house that are going to be the beaters (long story) ask peirced he saw my mess last night.
 

PierCed_3

I drive Frankenstein!!
Location
Brigham
Badcop said:
I have 4 XJ's in the house that are going to be the beaters (long story) ask peirced he saw my mess last night.

Mess...... Let's just say your place stuck out a little ;) . If you have one of the open strap type yoke then why not attempt it at least? It's not like you don't have another vehicle to drive :D . I would steer clear of the H&T setup though.

IMO it is better to get the HD setup since from the looks of it you have some beefy tires on your XJ. By tapping the shaft it makes it weaker at the end where the bolt is. I too contemplated the H&T method and I must say... I chickened out. I heard too many of the stories of breakage and screwing up your entire T-case from the breakage. It is inevitable that one day things will break but I figure why not postpone it a little.

If you do it, I would like to see how it looks afterwards though :D .

Andrew
 

Ken

Registered User
Location
Salt Lake
Six States did mine and changed the driveline. I have had no vibration issues and it worked well at moab last year. I had a np242 and so this complicated things a little bit with the np231 hd shaft setup.
 

4x4phil

Registered User
Location
Salt Lake City
Dude if you got the yoke, I not only say do it, but find out what it came off of and let me know. If it's the same length as a regular slipyoke you should have plenty of spline for strength so long as you didn't make the end hole too deep you'd probably be alright....maybe. The hack n tap kits don't hold on to much shaft. It's possible that you may have found a cheaper way to do it better. Pick out a grade 8 bolt you want to use. Find some sort of solid spacer about 3/4" long with a perfect hole for your bolt so there's no slop, drill it, tap it, silicone the end of the bolt and tell me how it works. If you're on a budjet and you can find something more reliable then what you have...rock it out. It's not like you're running a 4:1 transfercase with a v8. It'll probably hold. If I would've had a yoke like that you can bet your a## I would've tried to make something work. Good luck, let me know how it works. And if Drew's ever in your garage again tell him he's a bastard child for not comming to visit his brother while he was in slc, assuming that's where you live. If not....sorry Drew.
 
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PierCed_3

I drive Frankenstein!!
Location
Brigham
Halfway to SLC... He lives in Ogden. You know I would stop in if I was in SLC...




:D :hickey:
 
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Badcop

Who Dat? Who Der?
Location
Hyrum UT
WOW, soinds like my house..... you 2 knock the crap off or ill seperate yah! :rofl:


Anyways, Im thinking im going to try and weld it first, use a few taks to keep from warping, if that does/doesnt work ill try the h&t route, i have a couple (2or) 231 output shafts laying around, ill let ya all know hoe it goes...
 

Andy

aka. Hollywood
I don't recommend the H&T but if you do it put some silicone (alot) inside the end of the slip yoke so it seals when you bolt it down. I bet that slip you have might even be for a 1310 series cv, maybe?


Andy
 
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