Ranski

I have been chasing a vibration for almost three months.

First diagnosed (by dealer) as tires that could no longer be balanced..OK I bought new tires (not from the dealer) oh yeah told them to inspect the u-joints while they had it...they said they looked fine.

Still had vibration...

Ok took new tires in to get rebalance with correct machine. They found out one of my new rims was warped WTF. Cool put spare on and vibration should go away....WRONG!

Well after following another post with similar situation they finally reported problem solved w/ a little grease in the u-joint.

Cool, climbed underneath today to grease up u-joints and what did I find...







BAD U-JOINT!!!!!
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Question: IS this too bad to drive to work tomorrow and take care of this over the weekend?
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Glenn

Sounds like someone didn't look very closely.

Glad you got it fixed.

96LtdYota

can you explain how this is a bad u joint... i don get it

kyle_22r

you can see that one of the caps is wasted...that and the fact that the yoke is waaaay off center

i wouldn't want to drive on that myself...if it was me i'd unbolt the rear driveline and drive in 4hi(basically front wheel drive)

superjoe83

looks like they haven't been greased in a while i would do what kyle says also, go front wheel drive before that joint comes completely apart and/or chews up your yokes

Ranski

I greased them religiously...every 3,000 however I did go wheeling two weekends back and had the vibration then as well. Probably lost all the grease in the past two weeks.

So there is nothing wrong with removing the shaft and driving in 4-hi

Ranski

kyle-

I took your advice and removed the drive shaft. I'm taking it in tomorrow to have it replaced. I'd do it myself but I'm heading out of town tomorrow to go climbing and don't have time to bumble around.

Here it is removed...

kyle_22r

nothing wrong with it, might get a little torque steer since you're driving with the front, but nothing that a FWD car wouldn't have.

if u-joints didn't go bad, they wouldn't cost $7 at the parts store

Yoda

My son's rear U-joint fell apart and the driveshaft cut a hole through the floor before they got stopped. He had tools with him, so he pulled the rear shaft,locked the hubs and drove the 150 miles home like that.

SLC Punk

Those U joints are pressed in right?

kyle_22r

yep, they're a press fit. took me approxmately 5 hours to get one out the first time...then about 15 minutes after that.

what i've noticed(at least on mine) is that the caps don't like to press all the way out of the yoke(the cross hits the yoke) so a vise and a large mallet come in handy. i used one of those harbor freight ball joint tools to get it out, and brought it back the next day(it's a large C clamp with a hole in one end...i could build one out of a C clamp and a large socket, definitely not worth $40)