darknezz

Yeah fun day, got called into work early on my day off for a computer server emergency and on the freeway the drive shaft u-joint at the differential broke into pieces, made quite the racket.

I've been noticing the vibration getting worse and should have changed them before this happened, in fact I was planning on doing it this coming weekend. I would have had the new u-joints in tonight but damn autozone gave me the wrong ones and they were closed by then...

My only real questions are:

I pulled the whole drive line and "yoke" (I think thats what its called, the round thing at the front end of the drive line that has splines on the inside) out of the transfer case (also think thats what thats called, the part on the back on the tranny that splits it for the front and rear ds) to work on it easier. Some dark oil poured out, not much mby a 1/4 cup, do I need to worry about filling that back up? If so what is it and where do I put it.

The second question is are all the u-joints the same ones? Front and rear drive shaft and all the wheel axles? There pretty cheap and easy to replace so I want to do all of them and never worry about it again.

Danke

Russian

not exactly sure on the first question but u have the names right...

as for the second question go on the autozone site and put your vehicle info in. than when you go the universal joint page look at the notes they have for each listing. it will tell which one is for what.

CAEMI

I don't think the axle and driveshaft u-joints are the same...but I'd love it if they were. I've got a pair of axle u-joints but I NEED a pair for the rear DS.

Hope somebody knows the answer.

95Cherokee

On a related note, how tough is it to change the uni-joint (rear), can it be done by Joe Average in his driveway without too much cussing and screaming?

CAEMI

Yes. There is a neat video on Youtube that shows you step by step. Somebody here will probably post it. It's a guy doing one in his driveway with a hammer and a couple sockets.

caged

yup, it's fairly easy to change in your driveway with only a couple sockets and a hammer. but it is easier to use a hf press. or borrow one from a jobber.
a bench vise comes in handy also.

i took a bunch of pics last time i did one, figuring i'd do a write up on how to change them out, but there are many detailed ones already floating around the internet.


you want a 1310 series for the driveshafts and either 260 for vac actuated d30 or 297 for non vac and all later years for the axle shaft joints.

ol"blue

Where the slip-yoke on the end of the driveshaft goes into the transfer case, that was the transfer case fluid that leaked out. There are two plugs on the rear facing side. The lower one is for draining it, the upper one is for filling it. If you don't want to drain the old fluid and refill with new after you replace the driveshaft, remove the upper plug and refill until you can feel the fluid touch the bottom of the hole with you finger.

95Cherokee

Well I found a YouTube vid on how to change a U-Joint on an Explorer, that will have to do, I get the general idea.

darknezz

Ok thanks guys. And to 95cherokee, I watched that video as well, these are EXACTLY the same. There pretty damn easy with a big socket on the bottom and a littler socket on top and a hammer, I had no problems.

And ok so about the fluid, I might as well change it while I'm under there, its pretty black, what oil does it take?

93xj

it takes atf "automatic transmission fluid" buy 2 quarts and fill it till it runs out the top hole

darknezz

yea thats what they said at autozone was atf, weird to me. I don't have anymore money til friday so hopefully it will be ok. I didnt really see any obvious drain and fill holes either, but I also didnt look very hard.

Anyway I had to get a new differential yoke piece at the junk yard cause it bent the little bolt on c brackets and snapped off the retaining tab on one side. But its all back together now with 2 new u joints AND FEELS SO MUCH BETTER! No more slop on the gas pedal and no more bad vibes ^_^

Hopefully nothing else breaks for a little while.

ol"blue

This is a different t-case, but you'll get the idea of where the fill & drain plugs are from this.

winston427

Inspect the yoke on your rear diff to make sure the locating tabs (identified in pic) did not break off when the u-joint failed. If one of them broke off, which is a regular occurence with u-joint failure, then a follow up failure will be looming in the future. Without the tabs the u-joint can slide sideways and pop out.

nw-xj-scott

I have to add...

I really advise sticking to Spicer U-joints. Autozone U-joints Have a terrible reputation..

Spicer joints are a buck or two more.. but they are OEM brand

darknezz

uhm thats exactly why I said I went to the junk yard today and replaced the differential yoke but thanks for trying to help.

and too nw-xj-scott,
Well where do I get spicer u-joints then? These will work for now, I needed my DD and I dont do much hard driving just some occasional light dirt trails. They are easy enough to change though that when I do my front driveshaft joints I'll change out the autozone rear ones too.