yesterday i was just driving on the street, just a normal day, and all of a sudden i hear a loud pop from what seems to be the rear of my truck. i immediately think u joint but im not sure if it is in fact the u joint. so today i have it on jackstands and would like to do some tests to correctly identify what is wrong. so what should i do?

 

Don't kill me for this, but could it have been a backfire? (I owned an 83, and never had a u-joint fail). I did however, have a muffler blow apart, and it sounded like a shotgun under my truck....

 

no def. wasnt a back fire i just put new engine in the thing and new complete exhaust system. and i had to limp it all the way home clunking every second. def drivetrain related

 

-bump-

 

ok ive determined it is not the u joints now. should I have disassemble the rear end? ive done them in auto class before but I’m not sure if mine is going to be as simple. when I was doing them in auto I didn’t have to measure any backlash or anything (I don’t know how to do that) so is it as simple as I hope it is just some regular tools and some common sense? I would really like to just see what happened in there but am a little nervous about it