Help on replacing a UJ

[Darren]

I was getting a bad vibration at speed and after a good look underneath this morning found the Universal Joint at the gearbox end of the rear driveshaft is very worn. I've got the driveshaft off and ordered the new UJ from Milners but I can't get the old one out of the holes in the driveshaft. I've removed the c clips and got the biggest G clamp I can find on it but can't force it out, do I just need more force (bigger clamp?) or is there a trick I'm missing. The Haynes manual says it should just push out.
Thanks anyone that can help
Darren

[Guest]

I was getting a bad vibration at speed and after a good look underneath this morning found the Universal Joint at the gearbox end of the rear driveshaft is very worn. I've got the driveshaft off and ordered the new UJ from Milners but I can't get the old one out of the holes in the driveshaft. I've removed the c clips and got the biggest G clamp I can find on it but can't force it out, do I just need more force (bigger clamp?) or is there a trick I'm missing. The Haynes manual says it should just push out.
Thanks anyone that can help
Darren

Darren.

Best way that I have found is to get two sockets - one that fits inside the yokes to press on the bearing cup and one that has an inside diameter bigger than the bearing cup.

Place the smaller of the sockets on the floor, use the larger of the two sockets on the other side of the yoke. Give it a couple of good hard wacks and the smaller socket should drive the other one out slightly enough to loosen it off. Then use a socket extension bar to tap the cross piece back the other way into the large socket. That again should drive the other beraing cup far enough out to lossen it.

Repeat this for both pairs of bearing cups.

Cheers

[Tallyman]

Darren,

Did your vibration disappear on overrun or was it there all the time. I've got a vibration problem on mine but, having dived under the car tonight, I can't find any slack at all in the propshaft UJ's, in fact I can't move it at all when it's in park. I even tried a bar in between the yokes to see if I could move them but not a millimeter of movement.

The front propshaft turns easily but can't feel any excess movement there either, although I don't use 4WD at all. I even put a spanner on as many of the gearbox bolts as I could reach but nothing seems loose. This one's got me stumped.

[TonyN]

Mike, I've had plenty with no slack, but when you take them apart a pile of rusty needle bearings fall out.

Best way to check is pull the drive shaft and give the UJ's a good twist and feel for tight spots.

[Tallyman]

Thanks Tony. I doubt I have time before I go away to sort it, so I'm going to hope it last until I get back from Chester. There's plenty of grease in the joints at the moment so that might help to keep it all together for a week or two longer. Think I'll pump some more in tonight just to be sure.

[Darren]

Darren,

Did your vibration disappear on overrun or was it there all the time. I've got a vibration problem on mine but, having dived under the car tonight, I can't find any slack at all in the propshaft UJ's, in fact I can't move it at all when it's in park. I even tried a bar in between the yokes to see if I could move them but not a millimeter of movement.

The front propshaft turns easily but can't feel any excess movement there either, although I don't use 4WD at all. I even put a spanner on as many of the gearbox bolts as I could reach but nothing seems loose. This one's got me stumped.

Tallyman, my vibration did disappear on overrun and increased with speed, there was no movement whilst in park but in neutral there was loads of movement and on closer inspection there is most of a cm of movement in one of the barings. I couldn't get the joint out (althought thanks for tips Lucky) but it only cost £10 for a new joint from Milners and £10 for a local garage to fit it in the driveshaft so I should be back on the road this afternoon.
Darren

[Tallyman]

Hi Darren, thanks for that. I wacked more grease in my rear propshaft UJ's last night but didn't try moving it into neutral. Think I'll do that when I get home tonight, if it isn't pi..ing down when I get back, and see if I've got any play in them. If so, I'll be on to Milners for the bits.

[Tallyman]

Update

Darren / Tony,

Thanks for the info. Decided to take 1/2 day today and sort the propshaft as I ordered a pair of new UJ's from Milners yesterday and got them delivered to work by 9.30am this morning.

When I got the propshaft off, the rear UJ was ok but the front one was definitely "french connectioned". When I finally got the joint apart, one side had the grease hole blocked with hard grease, so nothing was getting through to it. It wasn't rusty, just totally worn out and all a nice shine clean silver colour so much that all the needles fell out without any help.

Decided to only replace the front one for now, as the rear seems ok. Took the car for a drive afterwards and the vibration is gone, thank goodness. I'll leave doing the rear until after the holiday when I've more time on a weekend.

[Dunno]

Tallyman, my vibration did disappear on overrun and increased with speed, there was no movement whilst in park but in neutral there was loads of movement and on closer inspection there is most of a cm of movement in one of the barings. I couldn't get the joint out (althought thanks for tips Lucky) but it only cost £10 for a new joint from Milners and £10 for a local garage to fit it in the driveshaft so I should be back on the road this afternoon.
Darren

Its well worth finding a local small garage to fit the units as I spent a whole day trying to remove and press in one of mine. and in the end I gave up and got a garage to press it in for me at a charge of £10 and it only took them 10 mins!

Paul