AFARR

The "inboard" (towards the Diff) side...for some reason on both sides of the vehicle......I can only get one of the C-Clips in place. The groove is still hidden by the metal of the driveshaft...and tapping with a socket won't move it in further to access the groove...the C-clip on the opposite side impacts with the wall of the shaft and won't allow anymore motion. So, I was only able to use 3 of the 4 C-Clips on each side.

No problem on the outboard part...both C-Clips went into place fine.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

AFARR

SeriousOffroad

Take it apart. Good chance one or more of the needle bearings is out of place.

mrfajita

This, or it was a cheaply made joint with too thick of caps or c-clips. My friend had this problem with an autozone axle U-joint.

Jeepnfm

I'm with the needles being in the way, or get out the micrometer and check it for size... I'm a fan of wire brushing the crap out of stuff before reassembly, maybe try a rat tail file and clean the clip groove? How close is it to setting in place?

AFARR

The groove is JUST barely hidden (the whole groove) by the 'ears' of the U-joint metal.

I thought it might be due to the 'ears' being slightly bent on one side (since it's the same on both sides of the vehicle and the same part of the U-joint (inboard)).

I'll check it...had to reassemble so I could move the vehicle, but did use anti-seize on all the parts, so should be MUCH easier to take back off.

AFARR

Oh, yeah...before I do the replacement (have the clips sitting in the Jeep for now so I won't forget)...I'm getting a Bearing Press (or a hydraulic press)...make life much easier...!

Bustedback

Sometimes the ears on the shaft get knocked inward when hammering the old ujopint out. Take a drift and place it on the inner part of the ear at the end and give it a good wack, that should move it back into position and allow the grove to be visable. That is also a good way to free up a stiff ujoint that was just replaced.