U-joints, a cautionary tale.

U-joints, a cautionary tale. Take them seriously. These were really not very noisy. Slight clunk when put into drive , some squeaking. Knew one needed replaced just because I noticed the dust seal was torn up. Did not give it much thought. Was going to get them replaced after first of the year when shop had time because I just didn’t want to mess with it myself. Well flash fwd to yesterday I had the truck up on the ramps get ready to run the wires for my air compressor and 2nd battery system and actually had room under the truck to take a good look at the driveshaft. Grabbed it and twisted… and it moved… A LOT. Both the front and rear joints were shot. So much free play I am amazed they were still attached. Note the pictures of oval and teardrop shaped arms. 5 of the bearing surfaces don’t even show signs of there ever being needle bearings in those caps. Just rust and more rust. I bought the truck at 79k and I have 122 on it now 40k in 1.5 years I have had the “Full service” from Valvoline because I am too old and fat to be dragging my self under the truck. I will be doing it myself from now on for damn sure. I am now however having retrograde heart failure because I drove 2k miles to phoenix and back on those joints just before Christmas. I knew I had issues so I resisted the urge to go off-road out in the desert. Now I am terrified to check out the front u-joints. The back ones took me 7 hours to replace. If you are getting your oil changed at one of these places make sure you insist they actually do a chassis inspection and lubrication

 

Good thing you checked closer and got them fixed.
Sometimes it's hard to see any slop in them without having the vehicle weight off and in neutral, but judging by the looks...yeah...good catch.
Front might be just fine still, but worth taking a look at...and take your grease gun with you...trying to save the old fat man a little work..because I are one.

 

I feel your pain

 

Holy smokes

 

If there is one item that you only ever grease on your truck make it the ujoints! Especially the double CV joints on 1st gens as those are damn near impossible to find!

 

Yikes. Yeah I grease those bad boys at every oil change. That's pretty gnarly.