My fiance's 97 jeep cherokee is vibrating terribly at hwy speeds so i get under there and if you grab the driveshaft you can shake it side to side and the u-joint is tight in the driveshaft but actually sliding sideways under the straps in between the two tabs on the yoke that keep the caps on. I have a couple questions:
1. Is it possible it wallered out the straps enough to allow the u-joint to actually bend back the tabs on the yoke? It is cast and i figured they'd just break off.
2. Isn't there a strap style and a u-bolt style yoke for the 8.25?
3. I got a new u-joint to put in it but at this point if I put some straps back on it there will be a gap on each side of the cap between that little tab. I guess I could tack a washer to the cap of the u-joint but that might be a bit of a bandaid fix.

Get a new yolk and straps Someone broke the retainers off the yolk's ends that keep the end caps of the U-joint centered.

If you need to get a new yoke, get one with ubolts, they hold the caps better because there's no gap at the contact between the bolt and the yoke like there is with a strap. Just sounds like the straps got stretched or the yoke got wallowed out, and you can't do much to fix that other than replacement.

I just did a search and it doesn't look like there is a ubolt conversion yoke for the 8.25 :\