After hearing a strange banging/scraping/pinging noise from the back of my truck that got worse when I hit the gas quick or let off fast, I tracked it down to a bad U-joint on the pinion side the sucker moves about 1 inch <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" /> I just hope I didn't screw my pinion seal up like some were talkin about earlier.....

Anyway, tomorrow morning I'm going to pull a drive shaft off of a '86 4Runner, would it be better to replace the whole thing as a unit, or disassemble the u joint and put it on my original drive shaft? Will I need to have the 'new' one balanced or should it be good?

Thanks, guys and gals!













Woo Hoo, 1000 posts <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Buy a new Ujoint and put it on your driveline. May as well swap out both ends while you have it torn down.

If I were getting a DL out of the junkyard, I'd be getting it balanced. What they do is they put new ujoints on anyway, as you don't want that slop factoring into getting it balanced.

As far as balancing your own DL, flip a coin; depends on how hard you wheel, if at all. I've had to redo mine once or twice.

Pinion seal isn't that much of a PITA to swap if it winds up leaking. DO check for play once the DL is off, in case you've had this going on for awhile; might've wallowed something out. Cursory check never hurts.

yeah, i doubt any driveshaft from a junkyard isnt going to be dented. i say you just put new u-joints in yours. soak them in pb beforehand though.

Yeah, new U-Joint it is......guess it's time to pull the FSM out

u-joints arent hard at all. just pop the clips and then use two different sized sockets in order to get it out. you need one big enough for the u-joint to fit in and one small enough to fit inside circle holes in the yoke. i wish i wrote down the sizes when i replaced the ones in a 4runner. be careful not to bend the ears, as they will bend rather easily. also be careful not to explode the joint w/ the press b/c its easy to do. it happened to me. the joint came right throught the end cap so i had to go to the boneyard and get another yoke. a press is the easiest way to do it but you can use a vice if you dont have one. but sometimes its just best, and safer to use a block of wood and a bfh along w/ the sockets. dont forget about the pb blaster i mentioned earlier either.

heheh, I tore up a yoke on mine, too
they're pretty cheap to have done at a shop. shop I use here has a driveline division and will change them for $16ea.

not a bad idea to have the rotating assy. balanced as well.

Yeah, looks like this'll be next weekends job....thank god I have a take home vehicle now for work.....it's so annoying driving that dang thing, I don't see how anyone can stand driving a vehicle with driveline vibrations!!! It's driving me nuts!