U Joint Replacement

[bigfutz]

The replacement u joints are held in with clips. It is a waste of money to replace the Driveshaft. heat them up and melt out the plastic and install a replacement joint. It has been done this way for decades

Thanks. I guess it will be a first time for me. I’ll check back in if I get stumped.

 

[Knuckle Dragger]

I do them in the vice at work all the time...not using the vice part as a vise though... kinda hard to explain. you can even use a ball joint press "C" if you have access to one of them.

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Poor man's press. I use it like that all the time.

 

[evilunclegrimace]

Beat them out of there with a vise and a hammer. Don't hit the u-joints, just hit the yoke. After it's back in the truck give it a few taps with the hammer to loosen it back up. Did it for both the front and rear drive shafts, no press at all. No vibrations and a perfect drive in 2WD and 4WD.

DO NOT DO THIS!!! You can deform the yoke and cause fitment issues and vibrations

 

[454cid]

If you burn out the plastic it shouldn't be too hard to pound out the bearing caps, unless they're really corroded. They're not a press fit. You do want to avoid bending the ears on the yokes. I'd avoid any kind of shop press due to needing jigs to support the ears.

Clean out the remaining plastic, and lightly sand the mating surface, and take care of any burrs with a file. You may be able to reassemble by hand and with a few taps of a hammer, and a punch to adjust rings. Make sure you don't knock over the bearing needles. If it's notchy feeling after assembly, you've got a down needle.

 

[sewlow]

When heating up original U-joints to get that plastic glue crap out, you'll know the heat is working when the plastic starts to ooze out like snakes from the 2 tiny holes in the rear of the yoke. A blue bottle works fine.

 

[bigfutz]

Swapped out my 95 Tahoe 2DR drive shaft from my donor spare Tahoe. Went in so easily I feel like I must be missing something. I noted the alignment of the slot in the spline when I took it out of the transfer case, but I didn’t see anything in the female side that would align with it. I tried my best to put the shaft in with the slot in the same place, but it went in so easy I felt I couldn’t have hit it that quickly.

Also, how concerned should I be about balance? There’s only two positions it can go in at the rear.

 

[bigfutz]

Here’s the drive shaft I took out of my 95 Tahoe 2DR ~200k miles. I was getting a hard clank whenever I shifted into reverse or when I would reverse torque, like going from accelerating to decelerating. If I let it get into the no torque zone e.g. coasting on the highway, I would get a bad vibe.

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[sewlow]

Swapped out my 95 Tahoe 2DR drive shaft from my donor spare Tahoe. Went in so easily I feel like I must be missing something. I noted the alignment of the slot in the spline when I took it out of the transfer case, but I didn’t see anything in the female side that would align with it. I tried my best to put the shaft in with the slot in the same place, but it went in so easy I felt I couldn’t have hit it that quickly.

Also, how concerned should I be about balance? There’s only two positions it can go in at the rear.

Try it one way & then the other.
Did you replace the U-joints?
I can't see a grease zerk in that pic, but that should be installed on the compression side of the rotation. This is so that when using the truck for pulling or just generally hard(-ish) usage, the torque is compressing against the zerk instead of pulling against the one weak design flaw of the U-joint that's created when removing steel during the drilling & tapping of the joint for the fitting.
I had my driveshaft balanced with new U-joints supplied & installed by the guy balancing it, for $100.00. That included the re-n-re of the D/S from the truck too.

 

[evilunclegrimace]

Another thing to keep in mind is some of the 1500 series drive shafts use a u joint that is the same size as the one that fits the older pre '87 square body straight axle front outer U joints. Those U joints are a different part number but are a exact fit and they have a needle style zerk fitting in one of the caps and that make it a lot easier to keep the joints greased

 

[delta_p]

I remember when I replaced my ujoints in the 96 C1500 even after burning out the plastic, I had to put some pressure on the press to get the plastic to shear through. I actually have one of those Kent Moore U Joint pushers I got at an estate sale, which makes a little easier pushing on the joint shoulders.

Ended up putting in some Spicer sealed units.