U-joint replacement tutorial needed

Not doing too good guys. I had a rough first day, took old u joint in found the ones they gave me were not a perfect fit. Got the new ones and remove the old, no problem with press, but the new ones I sure am having trouble on some getting both snap rings to work. I can get one on and not enough room on other side. I'm really sure there is not a needle down in the cap, real careful on that. I have a friend that gave me a number to a machine shop close by and tomorrow I'll take it by and let them press them in. Should be around 60 bucks.

 

Yeah, it can be a pain sometimes, which U-joints or which brand did you get? They can tend to be a tight fit sometimes. I replaced one of mine since I've owned it, with moog heavy duty, and it was a tight fit no matter what I did or tried. Just make sure you grease them all good once installed.

 

Did you try pressing it to take up gap between the bearing cap and the one snap ring you can install?

 

Yeah, you could put pressure/socket/press on the side with a clip in and try to press in the other side's clip with a vice/socket combo or whatever press your using, if thats what Splitbolt is getting at

 

Yup.

@35:00 minutes

 

Yeah, could even try it with the socket and try tapping it with a hammer, but be careful not to damage it obviously.

 

And even then he may come to find he needs thinner washers that, may or may not, be in the kit he bought.
Press is the only way to go; you can feel what your doing. It also avoids shock that can scar the needles.

 

I did get moog. I greased them pretty good. Does both ends need to be slightly pressed at the same time to get the clearance for the snap rings? I did try a slightly thinner snap ring, still not enough. I'm going to the machine shop in the morning, hopefully they can get me going. Time is running out on me, I need to go to work the next day.

 

Id' follow the video that Splitbolt posted, that's a good representation of what needs to be done.

 

Thank you all for your help! I took the driveshaft to the local machine shop. He spent one hour on it. I had the one towards the back done right, he popped out the forward one and I picked up another u-joint for him, and he installed the middle one. He did say the one I had problems with had a couple of needles down in the cap. I'm pretty happy with the outcome. 4 u-joints about 75 bucks, and 40 bucks for the machine shop. I brought the driveshaft home installed it and took it for a drive down the road. No noise or vibration. I backed it up also and sounds good.

 

Old thread but seems like the best place to post this.

I just noticed a horrible vibration from off the line to about 25mph. It got worse and I'm hearing a grinding noise as well. Went under the truck and immediately noticed a u-joint is in bad shape. Should I drive it at all considering these pics?

 

I would park it as it can get very ugly very fast going down the road. Not only is that dangerous for you it could also effect innocent bystanders.

When you are going at typical road speed that drive shaft is spinning pretty fast. If the front joint at the carrier bearing lets go the drive shaft could become a pole vaulting stick.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking but I figured I'd post up the pics and see what you guys have to say. I haven't driven it since then but I got some Dana spicers with zerks and a new carrier bearing today. I'm just going to replace everything while I have the driveline out so it's good as new.

 

That was pretty easy with the right tools. I rented a ball joint puller from Advance Auto. I don't know the exact part number but the guy brought out a couple for me to size up and one of them worked perfectly. Next best thing to using a press and I really didn't want to whale on it with a hammer. The only clips that fit were the thin copper ones and it was a tight fit at that but I guess that means that everything is centered up properly. I was nervous about some of the torque specs (especially seating the carrier bearing) but it all went back together smoothly. No vibes and running good.

 

I recently did all three on my silver truck with 1350's. If I had to do it over again I'd take it to an independent shop. A 6" vice won't work, you'll need at least an 8". So then there's the BFH, which is the route I went. I used a 3 lb hammer and an impact socket. The front and rear ones were not that bad, maybe 1/2 hour each including cleaning.

At least for me, the middle one was a bitch to reassemble. I found it very difficult to keep both halves of the DS under control and in line while attempting to pound in the new u-joints while not losing one or more needle bearings from one of the cups. There's just too much movement and wiggling of the DS halves, and I have an 18' bench and a vice.

It's one of those projects I'm glad I completed, but in retrospect, worth the money to avoid if it can be brought to someone with a press.

 

A press is overrated. I used to try everytime with a press and anything that has rust it tends to not work. Usually it just starts deflecting the yoke pretty bad unless the driveshaft is fairly new.

Everytime I end up going to the old socket/hammer/and maybe bench vise if available. I even have the fancy Snap On Ujoint press tool...doesn't work as good as the backyard way.

Just a side note, I think all 2nd and 3rd gen use all Spicer drivelines so going on RockAuto and getting a Dana/Spicer brand ujoint for cheap will net you the same ujoint that Toyota would sell you over the counter. Its not like the old days were the genuine OEM ujoint was the shit. I'm almost positive they use all 1330 stuff these days across the product line.

 

I had this problem with mine as they were very rusty, and I was worried about bending the yoke. Learned that if you tap on the ears of the yoke with a metal hammer while compressing the clamp it shocks them just enough to release the bind. Don't even have to hit all that hard, and you can see it work immediately.

 

Have any of you heard of u-joints that have securement clips on the outside and inside of the joint?
Because I think I have that.
How the hell do I get the inner clips off?

 

https://youtu.be/4g_jI8XaSh8

Good Luck