Been a long long time since I have dealt with a universal joint. Here's what I have. I recently started getting a little shaking or vibration at highway speed and today I started hearing a nice rhythmic squeak. If my feeble memory serves me those are symptoms of a U joint going bad. Opinions? If it is how much of a job do I have here? Any special tools needed?

 

you're probably right about the U-joints

easy to replace...Pop the inside clips then tap yoke with mallet to remove. the rear ones are even easier. the whole job should take no more than 1.5 hrs if you work really slow at it.

Remember to pack new bearings with grease.

DO NOT force in new bearings with something like a vice it will probably bend the receiver. They should just tap in...

-Gun

 

Sounds like a u-joint to me, especially if this is a "new" vibration....

In any case, you might want to put the car on stands and inspect the joints by rocking the driveshaft back and forth looking for looseness both audibly and visually.

Sometimes you can see , hear, or feel a bad one, and sometimes not.

In any case they are usually easy to change with common hand tools, although a vise is helpful. My thought is that if you have a vibration, change the u-joints and then troubleshoot.

You will need to drop the shaft by removing it from the rear axle via 7/16" or 1/2" bolts/nuts, and pulling the shaft out of the tranny. You will likely loose some gear oil or tranny fluid at this point, a tranny plug is helpful here but I never have one, so a plastic bag taped over the tailshaft will keep things kind of clean...

Once the shaft is out remove the retaining clips from the u-joint caps, (some clips are outside the caps, others are on the inside). at this point 2 sockets come in handy, one large enough for the u-joint cap to fit into, and one big enough to push on the cap.

Simply place the big socket on the ground, place the shaft over the socket and drive from the top of the other cap the lower cap into the big socket. Flip the shaft and drive the other cap out the same way...

To assemble, you more or less reverse procedure without the need of the big socket. On re-assembly the needles in the new cap will try to fall down, if you make sure this does not happen you wont have any problems...

If you have a vise, it is easier and "more sanitary", same procedure, but no hammer.....

Anyway, once you do one it is a piece of cake and self explanatory..

<<Edit... for Gun, when I started this post yours was not there, so I didn't mean to step on your advise concerning the vise! You are right that a vise can get you in trouble if a person forces things, but for me, I have less of an issue knocking the needle bearings down using a vise, and I find it easier on the sockets... and, I have found that for joints that have been together for a while , it often takes considerably more force than taps to get these thigs apart! Sometimes I have had to crank the vise pretty hard and/or had to use a BFH in a near brutal fashion...

 

The last set of U-joins I did when in well but it was the same set I removed them to install a new slip yoke. The time before that I used the sockets and vice to install a new cups. as they indeed would not tap in. I don't recall what the exact issue was maybe one was cocked and it bound up or it was the wrong diameter. Either way by the time I realized i was being an idiot I had already stepped in **** I knew that when I unloaded the vice and saw the ears on the DS spring back some of the way

The socket method is great and may indeed be necessary for new cup installation just dont be an idiot like me when you use the vice

-Gun

 

I remember that sound weeek---weeek---weeek.

You don't HAVE to change them right away, I know a gentleman who lost the rear u-joint on an F-150 and managed to drive the thing 15 miles after wrapping it with an entire roll of duct tape. The good stuff not the cheap schit.
It looked like a bee's nest on the driveshaft. He's famous now.