Today I braved the rain and got my front axle-shaft u-joints replaced. I got my
Spicer 5-760X u-joints in today and rolled down to the auto parts store to rent a ball-joint press.
I decided to start on the passenger side as it was by far the worst of the two. I chose not to pull the diff cover as I had changed the fluid earlier this summer, so I only jacked up one side of the TJ at a time in order to limit the chance of any fluid coming out. Of course it started raining on me once I started pulling parts, but thankfully removing the brakes and unit-bearings was quick and simple, the plus side of the TJ being an Oregon native
When I purchased the u-joints I had considered replacing my unit-bearings as I thoughtthey hadn't been replaced before, but now that I got them off I'm glad I hadn't purchased them just yet. They look just like the
Timken ones and feel great without any play, I'm figuring the PO probably changed them at some point prior to selling the Jeep. Good enough for me!
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Once I had the axle-shaft pulled out I mounted it up in my vise and started to pull the clips from the insides of the u-joint caps. I found it easiest to use a small punch to tap them free and then a angled pick to pull them out the rest of the way.
I then started with pressing off the stub-shaft side of the u-joint. It was easiest to mount the ball-joint press in the vise and then position the shaft in the press as needed. The stub-shaft side cups pressed out easily and still had grease and all their rollers. On the axle side of the u-joint the first cup came off easily but wasn't looking too good inside.
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The last cup was the one that was all sloppy in my video, and it truly wasn't happy coming out. I could tell the cap was already cracked from the wear, so I assumed it was likely going to break at some point. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened! The top half of the cap cracked and sheared off in the ears of the shaft. Scared the hell out of me! Luckily I was able to take a punch and tap around the rest of it and punch it out the bottom. This cap didn't have even a single piece of needle-bearing left inside!
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Reassembly was quick and simple. Since these u-joints are sealed and don't have a zirk I added some extra grease into the caps before assembly. For assembly I used a combination of lightly tapping the caps in with a soft hammer, and using the press slightly to get the clip slots lined up correctly. After that I just popped the clips in and it's done!
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I then proceeded to put everything back together on the passenger-side and then moved onto the driver-side. Everything went even smoother that go around, and no horrific damage to the u-joint either, besides one caps needle-bearings being dry and rusty.
After I got all cleaned up and ate some dinner I drove the TJ down to the auto parts store to return the ball-joint press and the Jeep and me are both much happier now!
. No more grinding sounds when turning and one less clunky noise to worry about.
Honestly, after seeing the condition of these u-joints, in particular the passenger-side one, I'm very lucky it didn't decide to grenade and take out my whole axle-shaft
. There have been plenty of horrid times they could've chosen to do that!