I have a vibration that comes and goes from about 63 mph up. I already had the tires balanced and it did not help the situation any. Several people have said that it is most likely a u-joint. My truck has 75K + miles on it, and I tow a camper fairly regularly from March - November. I have gone under the truck and all three rear joints look the same, nor do any of them feel loose. Along with the vibration my rear pinion seal has recently started leaking which kind of makes me believe there is a u-joint that is bad. Thoughts?

I have begun shopping for u-joints and would like to get joints that can be greased. Are all three joints on the rear drive shaft the same unit? Who has the best units for the best price? I also noticed that none of the joints have clips holding them in the yoke. They all have a hard plastic pin that goes through the yoke. How does one remove those plastic pins to get the joints apart?

Any other suggestions thoughts welcome....

 

Anyone? BUMP.

 

Use the search there are like 500 threads on u joints...

 

Check the ujoint, it will ost likely be bad. Mine squeeked and then vibrated, but no play and the ujoint was tost.

 

I would suggest checking with NAPA as that is where I got mine. My truck is an 04.5 and all three u-joints were the same. As for the "plastic" pin, I believe you need to drive them out with a small punch and then of course replace them, mine uses the metal clips.

The joints will feel tight and probably look fine but you may see a line of grease on the underside of the bed or cab which indicates the seals on the cups are leaking. I had one that powdered the roller bearings and it still felt tight while mounted in the truck, it only had about 33,000 miles on it too.

 

The plastic isn't a pin. It was injected through the hole and into a groove around each cap as a hot liquid. I usually gently heat the area until the plastic expands then press out the cap as usual. WEAR GLOVES AND SAFETY GLASSES. The plastic can sometimes spurt out when melted. My preference for u-joints is the non-greaseable Spicer Life joint. They have a positive seal to keep moisture out, and usually live just about forever.

 

I've replaced all the U-jionts on my truck with greasable joints made by Federal Mogule. Every one that has actually went bad had compleatly dried out and siezed inside the cap/cup.

 

Thanks all. I priced joints at 2 auto parts stores. One sold the Federal Mogul joints which are made in the USA and cost $42 each. The other sold joints made in China and Cost $55 Each. Rock Auto has the FM Joints for $27 each. I also picked up a grease needle adapter. I think I am gonna try and shoot grease in under the cap seal or just right through it and see if that helps any. Has anyone tried this before?

BTW, the joint right after the carrier bearing does have a line of grease around it on the underside of the body. I'm betting that is the culprit.

 

You will have to heat the old joint out if it has the plastic. That stuff is super strong how they have it in there. You can and probably will distort/bend the yoke if you dont heat it, if you even get it to come out at all. I just recently changed mine and after doing a lot of research on here and Quad4x4.com The aftermarket joints are about .010" wider than the AAM ones.I did buy the Brute joint from Advance Auto (not greaseable).I measured the circlips thickness and gently ground them down each .005" so the u-joint wound be centered and it worked for me. I hear some people grind down the cap, I didn't know how to accurately check the cap thickness on the outside edge where the "raise" is without removing the rubber seal so I did the clips. I did notice the old joints wont push out quite enough in one direction to remove the cap without the mian body of the joint hitting the inside of the yoke. So I ground down the old joint body in that area before I started pressing it out. (after pressing back where I could get a grinder in there on the first one) I needed about another .080" or so before I could remove the cap, I even tried grabbing it with vise grips but it wouldn't pull it out.

 

Thanks all. It sucks that I'm even having this conversation at 75K miles.

 

I just did all 3 on the rear driveshaft tonight. All the same for me (06, LB Quad 4x4) used Precision 330A's , greasable, lifetime at NAPA, 21.99ea (AAA discount 10%) heat the joint...put a 20# and old socket to beat out....

Had a vibration, just started, 2 cups on the diff. joint had given up. One had bearings but no grease, one had dust and nothing else. All the rest were fine, but are new now.

Did it totally solo, took from 5pm-9m.....Brian

 

You must have an auto. The auto joints are reasonable. The manual trans uses a Precision 351A almost double the price. Oh well, I need to quit talking and order some so I can git er done.