should there be any play in the front dana 30 axle joint? I'm getting a clanking noise from my passenger side.

 

are you talking about the axel u-joint? or the bearing? neither should have play in them.

 

I'm not too sure what its called I thought it was the ujoint but I'll post a pic of the part I'm talking about one sec

 

Okay, sounds good to me. its probably the u-joint

 

ok can't find a pic that works, but when I move the joint it also moves the front driveline if that helps haha I'll keep looking for pics

 

if that helps any

 

Yeah, thats an axel u-joint. could be a CV joint depending on the style you have but i'm pretty sure its a u-joint on yours.

here's a write-up on replacement:
http://www.madxj.com/default.

under the "axle" write-ups there should be one titled "Front Axle Seals and Upgrading to 297-X U-Joints"

Its a bit more in-depth than you need, but has all the information you need to replace a joint.

once you get the axel shafts out...its pretty much like replacing any other u-joint thats retained by c-clips

 

thanks alot!

 

was wondering how much does a shop normaly charge for that kind of fix?

 

I'd say about $220ish. maybe as much as $350

Do yourself a favor, invest in some decent tools(if you don't already have them) and do it yourself. its not all that hard to do. While you're at it, replacing the wheel bearing on that side wouldn't be a bad idea for an extra $50 and no extra labor.

It is about a 2 hour job if you don't run into any issues. if the wheel hub is stuck in the steering knuckle that can easily turn into 5 or more hours.

figuring $85/hour for labor. then $40 for the joint(even though it only costs $17).

 

I got a quote of $280 and then $400..crazy. I just ended up doing it myself last week, parts cost $30. Took me around 4 hours and I have never done it before.