I've come to the conclusion that the u joints on my 98 DI need to be replaced.
1. Do I need or should I get anything specific?
2. How hard is this to do myself? I would call myself fairly mechanically adept.
Thanks in advance.

 

How many miles on your truck, do you have a roto flex on the rear drive shaft and is it starting to crack between the bolts, also how often do you grease the u-joints.
If it is a high miler, over 100,000 miles replace all the u-joints to be safe, they will all be the same part number and can be purchased any where.

 

Truck has just under 143k on it, and I've owned it since 139k and have never greased the u joints nor inspected the rotoflex (if present). Should I replace them with the greasable variety or not? And are they difficult to replace myself?

 

Yes, you need grease fittings and check the rotoflex for cracks between the 6 bolts, change it if you see any.

 

Go to NAPA and get your u-joints. DI's come with greaseable u-joints as OEM. You need to grease the u-joints at every oil change.

 

Your 98 should have 4 u joints, 2 on each shaft. When BMW had Rover, they did not put them out with a rotoflex on the rear shaft. Check to make sure.....

You can do it yourself, but for under $80 a shaft you can have them done and balanced by a professional. If you have vibration, I would just take your shafts out and have a driveline shop do it.

 

O.K. I just replaced my U joints and center ball all went well except the center ball. nothing could budge it slide hammer did nothing, so now I try heat and it still wouldn't move. The only way to get it out was to grind out the ball and then the race. no easy task. I also bought my u joints from napa, but, I'm not so sure it was the right choice they seemed small. whenI tried to put the double cardan togetherit would not line up with the second u joint. I dropped a bearing in the center ball.Now I tried this serveral times using a napa u joint. I had one precision u joint and when sitting next to the Napa joint, itseemed more heavy duty then the napa U joints NowI tried the U joint, where the double cardan and ball meets the shaftand within a few minutes it was done.I'm not really sure why the napa u joint didn't work. But, it seems to me the shafts on the napa u joint were smaller and shorter in length. I was told they are the same U joints used on Honda's. after all that.I can't recommend Napa U joints. I used only two Napa joints. all graseable.
gTAGG