Almost lost the VX today, bad experience with Indy4x parts

1st of all let me say that everytime I call Independent4x they are all very nice and offer as much help as they can.

However this time, their parts failed miserably. In the end it looks like their part was probably not faulty at all, rather the shop that did the install did something wrong.

Today I picked up my newly rebuilt and balanced rear drive shaft from the Drive Line shop here in Houston. The rebuild looked awesome new U-joints from Indy4x looked and felt great, HOWEVER I did notice that one of the 2 U-joints they sent me did not have the typical grease fitting on the cap but had a long shaft that was drilled into the middle of the U-joint and deposited grease in the middle of the joint. Major difference over OEM part, but I thought "I am sure they have tried these U-joints out on Isuzu's before they are probably fine". So I installed the driveshaft on the VX and took it out on a test drive. Everything seemed fine and then as I merged onto the highway I felt a shake in the driveline and then immediately a loud pop and bang and seconds later I am in the middle of the fast lane on the feeder to one of the most busy most traveled sections of a major highway in Houston with my driveshaft on the ground and that "different U-joint" from Independent4x blown up from the inside out, and cars racing past the VX just exiting the highway. The part just blew in half. Nothing was wrong with anything else, the driveshaft was professionally dynamically balance by the best drivetrain shop in Houston (and I paid for it) and the install was done by the book and with the ut-most care. The part just blew up the 1st and only time I accelerated with it installed.

I will be calling Indepedent4x tomorrow NOT a happy customer and NOT happy that my beloved VX is spending the night in a local parking lot.

ya, thats no bueno my friend.... get er fixed ASAP.

Mail 'em back the pieces of U-joint in a box and take a crap in it too!


Let us all know if they fix this right and get you good joints.

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Originally Posted by LittleBeast

1st of all let me say that everytime I call Independent4x they are all very nice and offer as much help as they can.

However this time, their parts failed miserably.

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Well, first, glad nothing else happened to you and your VX and you were able to get it off the freeway intact. Secondly, lets hope they make it right for you and that the members of Vehicross dot com will be watching what they do for you.

Glad you and the vx are safe

Yikes, dude, yikes. I hope this is an isolated incident, glad you are OK.

The only mechanical parts I have from Indy4x are the HD Tie Rods on my Trooper...so far so good. Are the U-joint custom made by Indy4x or just one of the parts they found that works? Like my tie rods, they make the HD shaft, but I am pretty sure the heads are just MOOGs.

Bart

Post up the offending part number so no one else gets burned. Then just call your bank to mortgage your new place so you can hook in a CTM U-joint.

Ryan,
Sorry to hear about your misfortune, but at least your alright.
Peace.
Tom

Wow Ryan, glad your ok and the vx, dang that is a big fear something like that happening, even worse on houston's busy highways! What did indy tell you when you called??

So called Indy and discussed the problem with them. Even if the grease fitting WAS making contact it would have likely just broken off. They said it had to have something to do with the install. So I went back over to the Driveshaft place, they immediately started working trying to find a better different U-joint and they found one for a different vehicle with the exact same specs and installed that one and took off the other Indy 4x U-Joint on the other end that did NOT break and replaced with the stock Isuzu one I had ordered.

I do not think the Indy4x U-joint was faulty, I think they messed up the balancing or install or something. Indy4x said that for a cap to blow up like that something in the cap was wrongly installed.

And since the Drivetrain shop did all this extra work and replaced with a brand new u-joint from their shops inventory in under an hour and repainted the driveshaft I seem to think that Indy4x was right and their part was fine, but something went wrong in the install.

Once I got the driveshaft installed with the new u-jonits my noise from the driveline has gone from a 9.5 (on a 10.0 scale) to a 0.5, it is barely noticeable at all now. You really have to have no radio on and be listening for it now, where before it was louder than my upgraded radio.

Much much better now :) I am very pleased in the end. And it was good to know that Indy4x's part probably was not the problem after all.

Great news.

I called the drivetrain place back and they just said "the part number was correct but for some odd reason it did not work in the car" so I still don't know what the deal was exactly with the faulty u-joint from Indy.

I also asked them what the part number was for the U-joint they found that would work in the VX and evidently the U-joint that is in my VX now is a "custom" u-joint. The guys at the DriveTrain shop found a u-joint with the same cross member size and then found a u-joint with the same cap size and put the 2 different u-joints components together to make a VX U-joint, and it is working great! :)

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Originally Posted by LittleBeast

...a u-joint with the same cross member size and then found a u-joint with the same cap size and put the 2 different u-joints components together to make a VX U-joint...

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That was very common in the muscle car days when we were swapping engines/transmissions and rearends between cars at the auto hobby shop on base. I'm sure it's the same deal with off-road monstrosities.