Ok, so I'm a moron. I don't know much about cars, so please forgive me.
Basically what happened is: My Ranger has been making a humming(louder than usual) and rumbling in 1st and 2nd gear for the past 2 days. At first I didn't worry about it because it was my days off and I wasn't going anywhere and I figured the noise would sort itself out(see? moron...) So today, I got in my truck and headed to work. When I went over the first speedbump, I heard a clang, stopped my truck, and found that the drive shaft "end yoke" had decoupled from the U-Joint where the drive shaft connects to the rear transfer case. I carefully pushed my truck into a parking spot and got a different ride to work.

My question then is this: HOW could the drive shaft uncouple itself? Are there any bolts, cotter pins, etc. to keep this from happening? And has anyone encountered this problem before(yes, I did search first, but I didn't find anything relevant)? And how difficult is it to repair/replace parts that may have been damaged/unduly worn?
Any pictures of a properly secured drive shaft or instructions on how to tell what failed would be greatly appreciated. Like mentioned above, I'm an idiot, so anyone that can help will forever have my gratitudes. Side note: I love my truck. Best vehicle I've ever owned.

PS. Will upload pictures(as good as I can in the dark) in about an hour when I get home.

 

Literally no one responded to the post I hope Im posting on. I have done this to my truck twice, my brother says its my driving. I say someone must be missing a bolt or some ish since the same boys keep fixing it. seriously, verifiable proof of twice in less than a year? what gives?

 

Welcome to the forum

Can't see how a driving style could cause a drive shaft to drop off, break yes, drop off no
Easier to break axles and driveshafts with big tires

Driveshaft has to have a slip joint somewhere so the rear axle can go up and down, driveshaft gets shorter and longer
And it has to have u-joints so the angle of rotation can change
U-joints fail

You should always include the year of the Ranger and engine model
And in this case manual or automatic trans, and 2WD or 4x4 would be helpful, i.e. your drive train info