cliffy

So I have my 95 XJ and I took it to get it inspected this week and it failed as I expected but I wanted the punch list to take care of anything that I had missed. That being said I need to replace the drivers side u joint on the front wheel. Is there a write up on here somewhere or a thorough video somewhere to check out. It also appears that the U joint is missing one of the caps and it has oblonged the yoke too. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Roler

Several youtubes available for the Jeep front axle (ujoint) removal. Several good youtubes available for ujoint removal: with bench vise, hammer or press.

I guess with the damaged ujoint, it will only be obvious what is has done when you get down there.

cliffy

Thanks I will check them out.

DFlintstone

X2^. You have the option to remove the axle and take it someone you does that. The only time I remember not doing that myself is because I broke down in front of a Harley shop, where no one crosses the line. Since the vise was on the other side of the line, I, needed to pass a 12 Pack over with my (Jag drive-line), to have the joint changed.

I could have done it with a hammer and the sockets in my toolbox, but I had no safe way to support the car to remove the drive-line. (They loaned me a jack stand). At home the 8 in. vice and a torch makes it easy , right? Not always. On one front axle of my 90 Jeep, was the MF drag out battle to H. I had the sense to stop vice pressure, add heat and keep "rapping" on it to tease the caps loose without bending an ear. Plenty of ears have been bent in presses and vices. You can put the new caps in the freezer before you start, that will make them smaller to press in.

cliffy

@DFlintstone, I am planning on tackling this myself, it was kind of why I bought the thing in the first place I missed my old TJ. I do appreciate the feedback and I found some good youtubes as suggested. I am glad I sought out some info first because it looks like I am going to have to replace the shorter knuckle on the hub because of that missing cap. Off to the junkyard this coming weekend so I can find one and just rebuild it then swap it. I do have one more question though in one of the videos it suggested that some Dana 30 fronts have c clips like the 35 rears. Is this true and is there a way to tell without removing the differential cover ?

SeriousOffroad

Nope, no c-clips on Dana 30 non-disco axles.

cliffy

Glad to hear, I am trying to hammer this list out as quickly as possible and getting to the differential would have just added to it. Thanks again.

DFlintstone

I don't think there are any clips .... Fine! see post #12 Here, (can go easy, Or> (A tip here)
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/fro...-disco-147978/

Oh...in post #6, you can put a 3/8 extension in the hub bolt hole, and use that and the power steering to pop the hub free.

Pete, 5-90, (and offroad), That's a pretty good pic I got there for rotating the inner C-clip.

Cliff, just to be clear, the caps come on the new U-joints...

cliffy

Awesome, I have my work cut out for sure but all the info will hopefully smooth it out.

DFlintstone

Heating the ears (and all), with a regular propane torch, Good and toasty, can really help. Best of luck, let us know....

cliffy

I definitely will, thanks again guys.

cliffy

So I attempted to tackle it today on that front u joint, I got my *** whipped by this thing. I bought the u joint and the junkyard axle shaft, the shaft at the junkyard was easier to get to than the one in my driveway. The u joint in the shaft in my driveway was actually missing the cap on one of the ears on the hub so it had oblonged the hole to the point where the new u joint would have been useless to try to use again. I basically ran out of daylight so I wound up just putting the junkyard shaft in and putting it back together with the used shaft and u joint in it. I know this isn't optimal since I had it all apart but it is what time permitted and ultimately I just need it to push through the re-inspect and hopefully it bought me enough time to reassemble one properly. Thanks again for the advice and pointers, I didn't get to use them all but it surely helped.

DFlintstone

Yea, if you see post 12 in the link I posted above...It didn't "kick my but" But did take me to the mat. And I've done way more of them than I can remember. (Btw, later the other side went normal). Idk, it seems some of those came out tight or something. Guess that's "off topic"

Agreed. Oblong holes are only good for very specific applications. Maybe just run the shaft you have and carry a new U-joint, it will tell you when it's tired! I almost never replace parts that are working fine.

I ran mine a very long time with a toasted joint on the right. I could hear it going past guardrails and such that would reflect sound. It still would work to pull me 10 feet out, if got stuck....(of course, moments after I finally fixed it, the left went bad!)

Thanks for getting back!