Hey guys, in a few days I'm going to remove my front driveshaft to replace the U-joints. I was flipping through my Haynes Manual, and it says I need to unbolt the transfer case and lower it 2 inches. Seems way more complex than it needs to be. Has anyone removed the driveshaft before, and does the transfer case really need to be unbolted?

Other than that, the procedure seems pretty straight forward. I'll try and remember to take pictures and post a quick DIY. I couldn't find much info on this at all.

Here is the U-joint:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA26S0SP3815

Same U-joint for the front and rear. I double checked with a caliper, the cap on the U joint in my driveshaft is 20mm, so I'm fairly certain these will work. They came up when I searched the axle part number. Both the new and old part number brought me to this U-joint.

 

After checking AllData, and looking at a few pictures. What Hayne's meant by unbolt the transfer case, was unbolt the transmission crossmember... A much simpler thing to do, haha.
Anyway, I will update when I do all this later this week hopefully. Wait til you see the pictures of how bad my U joints are...

 

Find the FSM online. That is not how the FSM lists the removal procedure. Off the top of my head, you should remove the cat. Depending on how bad the nuts are rusted, it could be a real PITA

 

Cat won't be coming off. It doesn't appear to be in the way at all. Hayne's manual doesn't mention that at all, so I imagine it won't be necessary. Alldata did say to do that, but I think I can get it out with the Cat in place.

 

Bad news. I wrestled with the driveshaft for an hour, even dropped the steering rack, lowered and raised the tranmission (just unbolted the mount). AllData was right, the cat does need to be removed. Since I live in the midwest, it is incredibly rusty, and I won't be attempted that. So it's going to a shop. Before I completelly give up, I am going to try my friend's ball joint/U-joint press. Autozone also loans them. It might fit up by the U-joint, but I really doubt it. If I could just remove one U-joint, I think I could pull the shaft out easily enough to swap the other U-joint on a bench.

 

Finally got around to doing this. It helps that I have a 50 ton press, 2 post lift, and a big compressor... I ended up removing the cat, which was fairly easy, dropping the shaft, and removing the old U-joints. The U-joints I bought do fit. However, the C-clips do not. From the factory, the ujoint caps are peened to hold them in. So, using a chisel, this is what my friend and I did. We also added some epoxy for a little piece of mind. I'm going to check them in a short time to see if they are walking out at all. I may even throw a tack weld on for added security...

All in all, I would say it's a doable project, but not ideal. I'm honestly not sure how well the caps will stay in. I guess I did install them just like the factory. Which doesn't seem great to me.

 

let me know how it went?

 

Two weeks later and everything is fine still. No vibrations or anything. You can do it, but having a press is almost necessary. A hammer and vice both weren't moving the U-joint much. A simple arbor press might be enough to press them out.

 

Sounds about right