Arrgghhh..... It took me 4.5 hours to replace the front u-joint in the rear driveshaft of my 95 4Runner. What should have been less than an hour, turned into a marathon of smacking my hand multiple times and wondering how I ever got myself into the mess. I wound up snapping my vice in 2 pieces, and breaking the swivel tip off of my tie rod remover. I finally succumed to good judgement and took a grinder to the spider joint, which is what I should have done in the first place. My mistake was pressing both caps straight through when I should have left one of them still in the yoke flange.

After replacing the joint I thought needed to be replaced, I later found out after driving it that the real culprit was the rear one! I swear, the next replacement will be less than an hour.

 

Isn't this how these little jobs always work out? :-)

 

Mine went about the same way, only I was doing the rears at the time. I also busted out the grinder and cut through the bearing after realizing that I was only able to press it out one side.

So, I have the grinder out and I'm cutting through, thinking to myself...jeez, I should really watch where my grinder power cord is going...it's awfully close to the disc...nevermind, I just cut my power cord...

Well, that added another 20 minutes to the project.

 

Isn't learning fun?
I can't count the times I've "modified" something during a repair only do think "damn, if I've known that ahead of time".
Good thing we have boards like this where we can share info and save somebody a little headache.

 

lol...been there, done that! Kind of makes you wish you would have taken it to Midas and paid them $20 to do the job!

 

LOL, I am so afraid of doing this myself. Adam, you said Midas could have done the work? I was wondering what type of shop would be the best to call up about getting new U-Joints put in. I was thinking about getting the driveshaft balanced as well. Do a lot of shops do this kind of work or do I need to find someone who specializes?

 

Usually Midas is pretty cool about doing small side jobs like that. I actually brought it in to the shop, they told me to walk back and talk to one of the mechanics. He said he'd do it for $20. (under the table) I've had exhaust welded up the same way.

I've also taken a u-joint to Pep Boys for cheap.


Now, balancing is a different story. I don't think you'll find a small shop that will balance your drive shaft. You would have to go to a drive line specialty shop for that.

Sometimes u-joints come out easy, sometimes sort of hard, sometimes they won't come out no mattery what you do. I've cracked ears on the yoke trying to press them out before. Then its a pain in the rear to try and hammer the new caps back on without disturbing the needle bearings.

I'd say go ahead and give it a shot. If you can't get it done, just take it to a shop. I've had to bring one in to a shop twice. I do them at work quite frequently so I can do them easier now. But you'll HAVE to have a vice thats solid mounted, and a good sized mini sledge hammer. Otherwise, don't even try it.

 

i did mine and my boss told me that if you have a vice or big c-clamp you can it it quite easily...get two sockets. one that is smaller then the cap and pne that fits over the cap...and press them out that way...that way one of the caps fits in the socket and the other is being pressed out

 

That works great if the caps arent seized up inside the yoke. That makes it a REAL PITA to get out. 10 pound sledge is the only thing that will work.

 

Thanks Adam!