I've seen many posts about replacing the front drive shaft almost every week. How about replacing the u-joints?? Is that now wrong?? Why replace a whole drive shaft for hundreds of dollars, when you can replace the u-joints for a fraction of the cost??? Am I missing something??? Personally, I haven't replaced u-joints in over 30 years. TR-6 had many of them. Whats happened?? I'm going back to my Bourbon, now.

 

The double cardon section requires a little something extra but it is doable

 

Something that an arbor press cant take care of??

 

Most of the time, if the shaft has been neglected or is non greaseable...the cardan joint's inner pin that holds roller bearing and cup...gets ruined and is non-serviceable. If the shaft cardan joint is okay and you're getting it freshened up before that happens...then yes...you can replace the joints and there is a replacement kit for the cardan joint.

Me, l don't have the time or desire to mess with them...and usually buy an upgraded heavy duty/greaseable replacement.

 

this exactly

 

Wouldn't you also have to go through the process of balancing the shaft after you changed the universals?

 

My broncos all had double cardan setups... id just dump the shafts at a drive shaft shop and pick them up later... i usually broke joints and often broke ears of the shaft itself and they fixed em up for under $200. I kept a spare in the trucks.... these broncos got abused big time though.

 

I've never had to, replaced tons of universals. Just keep the grease nipples and all the sections in the same orientation.

 

The centering ball in the double cardan is serviceable. It looks like this:

https://www.moog-suspension-parts.com/moog-617

I think this is the correct part #.

The difficulty is removing the old one. New one simply presses in.

 

I did replace the U-joint of the rear, it was a pita, never again. For the time it took plus the new U-joint, I would have gotten more than a new shaft. Of course, the front is much more expensive, but it requires three times the work and U-joints. And things can go wrong, it can crack, the new U-joint can get damaged or you create an imbalance. Unless you are experienced with U-joint replacements or have plenty of time and patience, I would buy from a good source.