U-Joint Replacement

These things have a nasty habit of getting vibrations from the carrier bearing (mines out of alignment right now and I feel the affects through the floorboards). My suggestion to narrow it down is get a spray lubricant (I use silicon spray because I have lots of it), and soak the carrier bearing down. Then drive it and see if that smooths it out. If it does then voila, there's your problem child. The affects of the spray wont last, but it's a great tactic for diagnostics.

 

I crawled underneath yesterday and I noticed grease lines on the undercarriage so I thought that the u-joints were the culprit of the vibrations. However, some folks on here have suggested that it all looks normal from the photos. I checked for play with the vehicle off and parked and there was none either by twisting or pulling front to rear. In neutral, there was play about a 1/4" by twisting but it was where the driveshaft connected to the rear diff and the connecting up front in the transfer case.



And here is a short video of the amount of play in the carrier bearing as some suggested to check that.
https://youtu.be/_Lw-XmXNSAE


I will lube the carrier bearing next time. This time I regreased all the u-joints since it had been probably 8-10k miles since it was done last and wanted to see if that would help first. Anyone with any other guesses what could be the culprit?

 

If you have an old tire you can cut up, try cutting 4"x.5"x.3" strips and push them into the inner void of the carrier bearing on either side, through the hole in the bottom. Greasing will help get them in. This will tighten up the tolerances of the rubber bushing around the bearing itself and should allow you to tell how much of a vibration is coming from the carrier bearing.

 

I had 3 U joints replaced on my 2007 tacoma with 153K for $300.

 

I'm not sure if it's my u joints or not but i get a clunky sound when giing around 30 mph and let go of gas. Anyone ever experienced anything like it?? Thanks in advance...

 

I took the driveshaft out,hauled it to the local driveshaft shop.charged me 120 I think for 3 greasable u-joints installed.should have replaced the damn carrier bearing though.

 

If you were able to pull the driveshaft yourself, you should've done the u-joints yourself. Would've saved you $45 and been faster.

Carrier bearing isn't hard if you have an impact gun.

 

Tagging on to this thread, I have a 07 Prerunner and I'm thinking it might be my u-joints, I feel the vibration at real low speeds, and sometimes there is a little clunk when I release the brakes. I'd almost describe the vibration as a slight drag, or stutter. Also kind feels like being in 4wd on dry pavement with a little binding. Only had the truck about a week and only has 65k on it. Could it be the u-joints?

 

Took me a couple of days, but I found something might help you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVC76dSBNnY

 

Also wanting to tag on to this thread. I'm getting ready to replace the carrier bearing and U joints on my 2008 Taco DoubleCab. Any suggestions on anything else to replace while I have the driveshaft out?

Thanks in advance

 

I've done one years ago, basic suggestion. The drive shafts are balanced, suggest marking each end with color paint like nail polish or paint stick. It's cheap you can use several different colors to mark the ends. So you can place it back in the same exact location. Ether block all four wheels so it won't move, or put it up on jack stands you don't want the truck to move or roll. When you disconnect the drive shaft. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tJWEVGqP6s

 

Yea I thought the vibration was the U joints at first but realized it was the CSB after I got under it. Figured the truck already has about 82k on it so might as well put some new U joints in while I have the driveshaft out. Definitely replacing them with greasable aftermarket joints.

 

Got the Moog 270's off Rockauto. Getting the old ones off and getting the front one was easy. The middle and rear turned out to be much harder. The rear one got in but it took a long time because one side did not want to press in easily to get the snap rings in. I actually saw that one of the bearing cups dug into the yoke while pressing it in pushing shavings of metal out of it. I felt like I was using way too much force to get it in. I had a 5 or 10 lb hammer and hitting the handle of an industrial vice to get it to press in. That was the only way that U-joint seated and I actually spotted that the bearing cup had a small crack in it. When i got both snap rings in finally, I spent more time on getting two of these Moog's in than I spent removing the 3 old u-joints and replacing carrier support bearing. The middle one was the worst, this is where a second person comes in handy to hold the driveshaft while you line up the sockets in the vice. I did it alone and it is possible but just a PITA. Here I ran into the same problem as the last one except two bearing cups on each side didn't want to press in fully. I got this idea that if I got a washer that was as wide as the bearing cup and thick enough so that I could seat a snap ring then I could press one bearing cup in enough with the washer so that it was flush with yoke, then press from other side and the other side would seat. This was where I was wrong. The first side wasn't too bad so I let it slide, but the second side looked completely destroyed. The socket and vice ended up being the winner against the U-joint. Can't believe how hard this was to press in. Moog really dropped the ball on this and to add insult to misery I hate the tiny little zerk fittings they include with these. You cant even swap them out with regular zerk fittings because the hole is too small. I bought the needle adapter but when I tried to push grease in it wouldn't go in. I pushed and saw the needle go right in the zerk and what sucks is that the needle is so small it bends with barely any force. So I cut it short and still no success. Basically wasted 4 hours and $50 on replacing u-joints that don't work. I like the zerk fitting on the end of bearing cup but didnt realize I needed a needle adapter and that it wont take grease even with it. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY ON THE MOOG 270 DESIGN U-JOINTS FOR OUR TRUCKS. Then as icing on the cake, which was actually my fault, I didn't align the rear flange properly before pressing in the ujoint. Now I have vibrations where before I had none! Total fail day on first ujoint replacement. Wondering if the vibration is related to new carrier support bearing or misaligned rear yoke or both. The carrier support bearing I went with was made by Anchor and it looked like good quality. Wondering how crucial it is to align bolts on CSB to exactly as they were from old CSB?

Pics of the damage:

 

Looks like I will be redoing the rejoints and realigning everything next weekend. Found these work from Spicer: http://www.driveshaftparts.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=242&search=5-213X
The Neapco 2-4800HD looks like a Spicer 5-213X, anyone have experience with it? It actually has 5-213X printed on the box of it. I was able to find 3 Neapco 2-4800HD for $28 shipped. Theres also other 2-4800's. On https://neapco.mycarparts.net/ they show 2-4800 as Neapco Silver and 2-4800G as Neapco Gold. So I'm guessing 2-4800HD is best? But now I'm leaning towards Spicer 5-1330-1X which I hear is triple sealed (instead of double with 5-213X) and has zerk in OEM location.

 

Would like to thank all you guys in this thread for all the info! Just did mine, my first U-Joint replacement i ever did! I have to say its not that bad but at one point i had trouble getting the cap on cuz the needle bearings falling out of place until i watched a video and seen that i had to pound it all the way down so the other end will hold them in place when trying to pound that side down! I also didnt not jack up the truck so space was limited but i have to say it fixed all my problems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANKS AGAIN!

 

I have a 07 Prerunner, does anyone know if all 3 are the same size or different??

 

Same size, ,may have different part #s due to grease zerk being at different locations for ease of re-greasing

 

Just got mine done from the dealer today, $825 total. Original quote was over 1K!!! It's cold here and my back can't handle laying on the floor for too long anymore. Somehow I think $106 for a u-joint is a little excessive.
Oh, 2010 Tacoma 4wd 6sp stick quad cab 140k+ miles.

 

Yikes, could have hired a young gun to remove the shaft and carry it to a workbench for you.

 

just take the shaft to a machine shop that does automotive work and have them pressed in......