Front Axle Shaft U-Joint Replacement
 

Got over a foot of snow last night so spent the morning pulling out Subarus! Noticed clunking in the front axles, pretty sure the u-joints are toast (after only 412,000 miles).
Any advice, gotchas, etc?

if the front d-shaft has slop, it can sound the same, you can use a pry bar to check thrust twisting the joint on the axle,was it worse turning?

Clunking with the wheels cut. Front driveshaft is good. Replaced the kingpins and bearings a couple of years ago and repacked the bearings a few months ago. Never replaced those front u-joints, and I get occasional stiffness in the steering in normal driving.

When I did my king pins, I didn't think that the u-joints were bad, but they were real bad. If you did your pins, the u-joints should be cake...Mark

make sure you replace with serviceable center zerk joints, I use a ball joint press, works real clean without impact

Thanks.

I leave my hubs locked all winter so i can make it home without locking/unlocking them every day, just jamb her into 4x4. So it is likely that i have worn those dudes out.

Make sure you orient the rease zerks to face inward and not outward. Otherwise you will have a fun time greasing them.

Thanks!

Also a good idea to orient the zerk ahead of the drive side of the trunion. In other words, make it so the zerk is being pushed by the inner axleshaft instead of pulled.

Probably not that big a deal in a DD, more so in high torque, big tire and heavy foot applications. Never the less, still a good practice

Not sure what you mean on that first part, and also don't know what you mean by the second part. My Dodge Diesel makes a lot of power, and with a stick there is a lot of shock on the drivetrain.

Mainly an off road, high horsepower, large tire thing.
The Cummins is obviously gonna put above average stress on drive line parts, I guess it's something I do so I was just throwing it out there.

Picture the threaded hole for the zerk weakening the trunion (u joint cross). Pushing on that hole is much stronger then pulling acrossed, or tearing, the hole.

It's also the reason sealed, nongreasable u joints are stronger. There's no material removed for grease routing.

spicer offers them both ways, im running precission, with zerks, ive had xlnt service from them, I also carry 2 sizes of spares, never had to use them, just me, I prefer serviceable, I do lots of offroad time and move a lot of weight, in terms of failure, they all do when the lube dries up, the stock spicer gives us lots of service without the zerk, precission offers zerk in cap for front axle joints that allows direct access with "pin tipped" grease gun provision