U Joint Replacement

[CBlack]

Anyone else ever have to replace a U Joint, in particular the rear?



Noticed a vibration when taking my foot off the accelerator as well as a loud noise, kind of like super swamper tires. Had it checked and the rear U joint is out. He had it up on the rack and was running and it was vibrating so bad it was rocking.

 

[JR]

I replaced my rear universal at the differential early this morning. I replaced them all about 30k miles ago with spicers. Wonder how long the rest are gonna make it.

 

[jelag]

I've owned several trucks in a fleet... . kept them for 500K miles... we've done a lot of Ujoints... we've found its hard to shake the rear drive line and see a bad joint... . but upon dis assembly we've found them bad... . we personally found no value in a high end joint... we've purchased the #351 I think from Rockauto.com that can be lubricated... and have had good results with that... we give them a little grease every 10K miles and use a full synthetic grease and can usually get 150K miles out of them... sometimes longer...

We've done the front as well... when we do the front we lube the hub as well... I just replaced the carrier bearing on the 05 at 150K miles... the bearing was still good but the rubber was broken out and allowing a vibration... Again bought a SKF from Rockauto...

I own a press, and have done lots of joints on cars and light work with just a vice, hammer, and sockets... but don't think I'd want to do this drive shaft without a press or ujoint press... . just my thoughts...

 

[04blackcherry]

Check the middle joint too. If it has one.

 

[HBarlow]

My rear joint started squeaking one day when I pulled a load of about 10k - 11k of gravel on a 4,400 lb. dump trailer out of the gravel pit a couple years ago. The truck had 75k miles on it at the time. The rear joint was dry and failing. I ordered joints from Geno's and had a good driveline shop in Lubbock replace the rear joint and rebalance the shaft.

 

[DZink24]

first one at 24k, second at 60k. i don't know how you guys are getting so many miles out of them. the 3rd one (currently) is a greasable, lets see how it lasts, at about 15k now. i thought i could do it myself. . until i realized how massive it was, my vise and tools were no match, i had to take it to the local Ford house to get it pressed. .

 

[CBlack]

I'm at 128,xxx miles right now.

Thanks for the input. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't an anomaly unique to me.

Now I'll have to keep an eye on the rest of them.

 

[jgillott]

My '07 has 68K on it now. Just replaced the right front for the second time a few hundred miles ago. Both fronts were replaced at 49K with ones with grease fittings (Spicer I believe). Rear universal at 55K.

The '04. 5 has well over 300K on it, pushes a plow, etc. Replaced the fronts twice when I did the ball joints right around 150K each time. The rear is original. Other than the auto being so loose that it really doesn't do anything forcefully anymore, I can't figure why they last so long in that truck under those conditions.

 

[jgillott]

first one at 24k, second at 60k. i don't know how you guys are getting so many miles out of them. the 3rd one (currently) is a greasable, lets see how it lasts, at about 15k now. i thought i could do it myself. . until i realized how massive it was, my vise and tools were no match, i had to take it to the local Ford house to get it pressed. .

I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one to have them pressed somewhere. We have a local shop here that will press them very cheap. I don't have the energy anymore to fight with them. And for the price, literally just a few $, it doesn't make sense to struggle with them.

 

[jelag]

DZink... I have a good friend in a drive line shop in Terre Haute ID... he and I talked about the short life and he encouraged me to assess the drive line angles... . he than suggest a 1/4 spacer between the carrier bearing and the frame, thus changing the angle (reduced) at the rear end... . after that change and the change to greaseable joints we did a lot better... .

 

[DZink24]

DZink... I have a good friend in a drive line shop in Terre Haute ID... he and I talked about the short life and he encouraged me to assess the drive line angles... . he than suggest a 1/4 spacer between the carrier bearing and the frame, thus changing the angle (reduced) at the rear end... . after that change and the change to greaseable joints we did a lot better... .

that does sound like a good idea. . you'd have thought the DC engineers would have thought of that. . my driveline is stock, as well as the 265/70/17 tires. .