Like the title says, any info on this would be appreciated. I think mine are shot and need to be replaced but I am having some difficulty getting them off.

 

I would recomend taking the driveshaft to a Machine shop and have them do it. Get some heavy duty Joints while it is out.

I posted a question about a driveshaft about a month ago and that is what someone recomended. I am glad it took it there. It ran be about 50 bucks with the parts.

Nick

 

The stock u-joints are retained by an internal nylon clip. The clip needs to be "melted" out with a torch to take the u-joint apart. I just took mine to a shop.... $10 to melt the old one out and press a new one in.

 

Thanx for the input guys. I was kinda thinkin that takin it in might be the way to go. Now I know for sure.
Reason I wanted to do it myself was cause I was gonna sandblast and paint the driveshaft just to tidy it up underneath cause it was starting to look pretty rusty. Oh well....

 

If you're gonna take the ds to a shop, I would have the ds rebalanced, too...of course this depends on age, abuse, etc...locally, its costs $75 for installation of 2 u-joints and balancing...it's amazing how out of balance some ds turn out to be...just my .02..
--Alan

 

well, i priced out balancing, and installation of both u-joints and most of the places around here want damn near half the price of an aluminum drive shaft for this work!!

while i've had the rear end out of the car i've been sand blasting and painting a lot of suspension parts and crap, and the drive shaft was among one of the things i wanted to do (as it was looking pretty bad from rust). so with a little persuasion from my dad (who was helping with the sandblasting and paintin), i decided to give the u-joint replacement a try ourselves.

we melted the nylon injector clips out with a welding torch and then with brute force and ignorance, knocked the main bearing caps off. it was then sand blasted and painted chrome. haha. imitation aluminum shaft. n e ways, looks a lot better now and i'm supposed to be getting some guidance on how to put in the new spicer joints i decided to get. hope all goes well. i'm still not sure though whether or not to have it balanced afterwards........
it showed no signs of needing it when it was in the car b4. just need the u-joints. if i do the joints myself, u guys think i should still get it balanced? i'm getting mixed opinions from friends

 

On my sister's beater 89 volvo she needed the center u joint swapped (2 part driveshaft).. the local machine shop wanted $100 or something. I ended up just cutting the old out with a cutoff wheel (took a little while) after trying to bang it out didn't work. Probably not the best way to do it.. but it did work.

 

i know banging it out prolly wasnt the greatest idea. but you shoulda seen how good they were stuck in there, even with the nylon clips melted out.

i didnt even think about trying to cut them out.

 

u-joints really arent' bad to do at all. like said just melt the nylon inserts, and then get a metal rod roughly the size of the ujoint cap. get a deep well socket that has an inside diameter larger than the joint cap, and go to the vise. line the rod up with the joint cap, and line the socket up so it fits "over" the opposite side cap. clamp down on the vise till it pops..done.

The new joint will almost always use a metal retainer clip in place of the nylon inserts, so installation is very easy. just press it in with the vise, and insert the clips.

Eric

 

wont squeezin it in a vise put strain on the yoke ears??

and again, should i t be balanced when switchin to th C-clip type retainer? cause one shop told me that when switching to those type of u-joints, it needs to be balanced.

 

I would get it balanced...shop around and see if you can get a better price...imho its worth it to make sure everything is true, straight, and balanced...
--Alan