U joint replacement

sewlow said:

Do you know if your truck has the original U-joints?
Yea, I know A long shot, but it could be possible.
If so, there's a trick to getting them out.
OEM U-joints don't have snap rings. They're held in place with a nylon glue of some sort. If there are snap rings in there...ahhh...well...never mind.

How-to get those glued ones out is shown in the first 5 minutes of this...

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Plastic injected into the joints where they sit in the yokes and driveshaft ends. GM did this for a long time, I remember my dad talking about it, having to explain to people how to get them out.

Watched the video..... don't clamp the drive shaft in a vice like that. It's a hollow tube and you could dent it. Also don't pound directly on the spider like they tried to loosen it up. They are extremely hard and you could chip it. I also don't really like how they're pressing the new bearing cups in with the vice. If you can't press it together by hand, you'd be better doing one bearing cup at a time..... hold the spider in the bearing cup so that you know you don't have any down needles, and use a brass hammer to tap the cup in place.

I was a little leery about their use of a torch, as I'm used to seeing those used for cutting. Maybe they had the mixture adjusted just for some heat and not cutting....I don't have experience with oxy/acetylene to know for sure.

They mentioned bending the ears.... you DON'T want that to happen. If you think that might happen, get a puller, made for the job. Getting the ears lined back up would be a chore. The joint will bind if the ears aren't straight.

sewlow said:

Do you know if your truck has the original U-joints?
Yea, I know A long shot, but it could be possible.
If so, there's a trick to getting them out.
OEM U-joints don't have snap rings. They're held in place with a nylon glue of some sort. If there are snap rings in there...ahhh...well...never mind.

How-to get those glued ones out is shown in the first 5 minutes of this...

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

Click to expand...

First five minutes then stop. 17:00-17.05 or so you see where they mangled the drive shaft tube. Holy smokes, they play like professional techs and they think they done good. SMH at some of the crap that's on youtube. The Lube guys playin' mechanic need a $300 driveshaft now. lol

Hipster said:

First five minutes then stop. 17:00-17.05 or so you see where they mangled the drive shaft tube. Holy smokes, they play like professional techs and they think they done good. SMH at some of the crap that's on youtube. The Lube guys playin' mechanic need a $300 driveshaft now. lol

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Yea. That's why I recommended only the first 5 minutes. After that, the vid descends into some ham-f1sted doucherie.
But...it was the only one I could find showing that heating process.
Lube guys are lube guys for a reason! Lol!

Something I haven't seen mentioned in this thread, and not in the video either, is make sure the slip yoke or spline yoke go back on in the same orientation. They were balanced like that to begin with and the there is a much greater chance of throwing the balance off with changing that up than with a different spider and bearings.

Yes I forgot to mention that! Everything needs to stay lined up( drive line people call this "in phase") or it'll vibrate.

454cid said:

It depends on which joints he has. 1344/3R/S44 are plastic injected. 1355 and 1415, usually use snap rings. There's also a little one, smaller then the 1344, that may also be plastic, but I don't recall for sure. I think they were for a front shaft on something like the Trailblazer, Though.

If the OP has a DANA shaft, like the weirdo carbon fiber covered thing, I don't know how those were built.



It's a fiberglass re-inforced plastic.... possibly a nylon.

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On my dually the oem u-joints used the external type snap rings that go on the end of the cap. That was the easy part. The hard part was getting the cap to come out the last bit since it doesn't press all the way out and was pretty rusted in there. Torch is your buddy if you can keep it under control.

packer0440 said:

On my dually the oem u-joints used the external type snap rings that go on the end of the cap. That was the easy part. The hard part was getting the cap to come out the last bit since it doesn't press all the way out and was pretty rusted in there. Torch is your buddy if you can keep it under control.

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Just use a punch from the inside of the ears at an angle....assuming it's not too stuck, I guess.

HotWheelsBurban said:

Yes I forgot to mention that! Everything needs to stay lined up( drive line people call this "in phase") or it'll vibrate.

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...and, use greaseable U-joints with the grease zerk on the compression side of the rotation.
On the compression side because the hole for the zerk creates a weak spot. If it's not on compression, torque will pull at the hole as opposed to squeezing it.
The zerk will prevent the hole from collapsing.

HotWheelsBurban said:

Plastic injected into the joints where they sit in the yokes and driveshaft ends. GM did this for a long time, I remember my dad talking about it, having to explain to people how to get them out.

Click to expand...

Years ago, before I found out about the glued u-joints, I broke a 6" vice right in the middle of slide trying to get one out without heat.
Broke right at the thickest part. A 6" cast vice. Yea, it was older than dirt, but even still.
The driveshaft was undamaged & the U-joint was STILL in there. Hadn't budged.
Pretty good explosion when it let go. I jumped. Buddy ducked. Nobody hurt.
There was two of us involved. Just goes to show that smart-ass kids really don't know everything, even when there's two know-it-alls combining their 'immense' brain power.
"Tighter. Tighter. Put a pipe on that vice's handle. Now crank it TIGHTER! Need a BIGGER hammer! C'mon, hit it harder. It's just a U-joint. We will not be defeated!"