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Drive shaft do not go bad like half shafts as they don't move. Real PITA. Make sure you do not dent the shafts or they may need to be replaced or rebalanced. I used 4x4 greaseless joints and they have held up great over the last 15 years or so.
Drive shaft do not go bad like half shafts as they don't move. Real PITA. Make sure you do not dent the shafts or they may need to be replaced or rebalanced. I used 4x4 greaseless joints and they have held up great over the last 15 years or so.
I humbly disagree with you on this. I just did my driveshaft and the U-joints were just as bad as the axle shafts.
Half shafts were probably done before. My drive shaft made it to about 110k, half shafts were every 20-25k or so.
Seems my experience is different. I am the original owner of the car and this is the first any of the u-joints have been done. My car has 90K on it. The u-joints weren't noisy, I just decided to do them. They all were past the beginning stages of failure.
I did my half shafts the other year, the old u-joints were rusty and the roller bearings were shot.
I made an adapter that fit the hydraulic press and works like the Tiger Tool. It worked well and was able to swap them out without putting extra pressure on the half shaft.
I replaced the driveshaft U-Joints on my 94' at the same time I was replacing my clutch. Pretty easy-> Jackup Car -> remove exhaust ->Remove driveshaft (some cars require you to loosen up C-Beam and shift over slightly).
I finally got around to replacing the half-shaft u joints 2 weeks ago. Easy enough job for me. I just removed half shafts and brought them to a local shop to press out old and in with the new. Simple job. I used this link for guidance on the half shafts:
Perfect time to inspect and replace any suspension bushings too. I used Moog non-serviceable coated U joints. A little Eagle F1 Mag cleaner to brighten up the aluminum
U joints do not have to be a big scary black box. I did the 1/2 shafts on my car in about 1.5 hours a side. I have an 86 and all I had to do was pop out the toe rod ends and I was able to wiggle out the 1/2 shafts between the camber rod and the spring. Takes a little patients but it can be done. Then a couple of sockets and a hammer is all that is needed to get the old U joint out and the same to get it back in. A vice if available is even better to start off putting the new joint in. I was also able to get my driveshaft out without moving the C channel at all. I did have to drop the exhaust to get the driveshaft done but the whole project still only took about 3 hours start to road test. I do agree and recommend that if you do 1 shaft you do them all. Maybe not all in 1 sitting but I recommend doing both half shafts at the same time then do the driveshaft. I used Spicer 1350X u joints so I expect a high quality part like that to last a good long time. As always there will be plenty of help here on this forum if you get into trouble so you are not alone.
#1....FSM
#2... Extra-extra-extra long extension for sockets. This lets you get to the inner joints on the half-shafts from sitting beside the car instead of trying to work under it where there's less room to rotate the wrench.
It's not a difficult job. Even I was able to do it
10-24-2017, 12:10 PM
