Help find replacement rear Driveshaft

[SafariSoGood]

New to me 2004 safari awd vin 1GKEL19X44B500891

In Philadelphia PA

Needs needs a replacement rear driveshaft

Having a hard time sourcing OEM or aftermarket online and my mechanic hasn't found one locally

What do we AstroSafari folks do for parts like this? Salvage yard only?

thanks for any assist!

[Herbie]

When my front drive shaft starting clunking, I was able to get a (used) replacement via eBay. $50 and a half hour of my time and I was GTG.

If your mechanic doesn't know about http://car-part.com/, he should really get on that. Not a lot of new parts available for our vans these days, so he and you both should get comfortable with buying used.

[SafariSoGood]

Thanks much. I actually used that to find and sent him the phone numbers etc.
I have found new aftermarket or re-manufactured front ds and they are $$$$
Makes me worry if i want to go have fun off road I could permanently disable it one day for lack of a basic part.

Clearly your van doesn't worry about overlanding! Looks awesome. Do you hoard parts?

I had a clunk in the rear. I thought swapping the ds and ujoint would solve it. turns out to be play in the rear diff. Is that typical?

[Herbie]

I haven't heard of issues with play in the rear diff, but it doesn't sound impossible.

I don't hoard many parts, but I did make sure I stocked up on a spare fuel pump and MOOG bits for the front suspension a while back. They're all ready to go since I know replacements there are a matter of "when", not "if".

[SafariSoGood]

yikes. i've seen a lot of astro/safari fuel pump vids on youtube. hope you don't have to do that in the field.