Hey guys! ChrisFix here and today I'm gonna show you how to check your Universal joints also known as u joints to see if they are going bed, and if they are going bad I'm gonna show you everything you need to know on how to replace them real easy that way instead of going to a mechanic and Spending a few hundred dollars to get these replaced you could do it at home for Twenty to thirty dollars using common hand tools and I'll be showing you two different methods to replace u joints such as the press method Which is the first method and we also have the hammer method just in case you can't find yourself a press to use I also Have a couple of different drive shafts We have a drive shaft that has a retaining clip on the outside And then I have a drive shaft that has the retaining clip on the inside as well as a drive shaft that has the nylon Injection in here which needs to be heated up and melted out, so I'm going to be covering everything so after watching this video You'll know how to diagnose and replace bad u joints and since we have to remove the drive shaft to get the u joints out If you ever need to replace your drive shaft this video covers that as well And if you're wondering if your car uses u joints well most cars and trucks that are rear-wheel drive all wheel drive and four-wheel drive have u joints and to show you where you could find the u joints in your Vehicle let's go under my truck now universal joints are located at the ends of the drive shaft You can see the drive shaft going into the rear differential here and right There is where the universal joint is now if we follow that drive shaft all the way to the front where the drive shaft meets The transmission or transfer case you can see we have another u joint right here and since this is a four-wheel drive truck Coming out of the transfer case right here. You might have another u joint in this case It's a CV joint at constant velocity joints a little bit different But if we keep going forward and follow the front drive shaft to the front differential You can see we have another u joint right there Now on jeeps trucks and SUVs with a solid front axle You can find u joints behind each front wheel Also on some rear-wheel drive cars like this Corvette if we look under the rear the rear axle shafts have u joints as well So that's another place to look so now you know all the different locations that u joints could be found in your vehicle But what's the point of them? Why are u joints even used while u joints might be small they're actually pretty important? They allow the drive shaft to come in at an angle And they also allow to move up and down inside the side with the suspension now without a u joint this drive shaft would have To be directly in line with the differential And it wouldn't be allowed to move side to side or up or down I would have to stay in that spot and actually have A really good example of how all this works, and that's using a universal joint extension Which you could use to remove? Hard-to-reach nuts and bolts without the universal joint the socket can't move it can only spin at that fixed point if we add our universal Joint extension now the socket could spin and move up and down and side-to-side This is good for getting to hard-to-reach bolts But it's also what allows the driveshaft our axles to move around with the suspension all right so now You know the importance of you joints and where you could find them now Let me show you how to tell if they're going bad and need to be replaced Now for most vehicles you joints don't have a service interval you just replace these when they're going bad And that could last the life of the vehicle with that being said My truck has over a hundred and forty five thousand miles yet it has the symptoms of a bad u joint so let me show You what causes these u joints to wear out? your joints have four caps that spin smoothly on needle bearings at the end of each cap is a rubber boot which prevents dirt and Debris from getting in here and damaging the needle bearings now over time What happens is those rubber caps wear out and then dirt and debris get in here and? Damage the needle bearings another thing is over time the grease That's in these caps dries up and washes away so the needle bearings run dry and you can see at the end of the u-joint here
There's all grooves in the trunnion from those needle bearings so dirt and debris and the lack of grease in your caps Could cause play in your u-joint, which means they've gone bad So there's three common symptoms of a bad u joint and you can both listen and feel for them so in order to do that Let's go turn the car on and we'll quickly run through each symptom And the first symptom is a clunk when you go from reverse to drive or drive to Reverse and that clock is from playing the u joint when the drive shaft changes directions Now the second symptom happens while you're driving And it's a rhythmic click squeak or grind that Increases in speed the faster you go and sometimes at higher speeds that noise might go away completely And the third and final symptom is if you feel vibration under your seat That's an indication that your you joints are worn out and poor visual I have a cup of water in the car Which gives you a real good idea of how much vibration there actually is your drive shaft can be spending over 3,000 rpms at highway speeds so any little bit of plane that you joint is going to cause a vibration So those are the most common symptoms of a bad you joint, and you might only have one of those symptoms and the problem is those symptoms are similar to other car problems you might have for example a vibration could be an unbalanced wheel or a squeak noise could be bad brakes so in order to find out for sure that you you joints are bad we Need to go under the truck and inspect them first let's do a visual inspection You want to make sure that the retaining clips are in place and the u-joint isn't pushed in or pushed outward this looks good So next we want to check the rubber boots on the caps and make sure they're not damaged you can see right here the rubbers dry rotted and separated from the cat so I bet dirt and water got in here causing those bearings to wear out which is making that noise you heard and Finally the last thing to do Grab the drive shaft and shake it side to side and up and down this thing shouldn't budge there should be no play or movement At all I like using a pry bar to get in here because sometimes Using just your hands isn't enough to move a bad u joint so pry at different spots and at different angles And if you look closely you can see this u joint has play in it So you want to do this quick inspection on all the u joints in your vehicle with the bad dust boot and the slight play? We have in here We definitely need to replace this u joint and you don't want to be driving around on bad u joints which could cause other more serious and dangerous problems if that u joint fails It could cause the drive shaft to disconnect and come flying out as you're driving also all those vibrations that you feel could damage the seal inside the Differential and the seal in your transfer case or transmission, which could cause it to leak out fluid so to prevent those issues It's cheap and easy to replace your u joints at home Using common hand tools you'll need tools to remove the drive shaft Which is held in with a couple of bolts and then to remove the actual u joint you could use a hammer or you could? Use a press now chances Are you won't be doing this often these don't need to be replaced very often And it's not worth it to buy a whole press kit Which could get expensive so instead you could rent this whole kit for free your local parts store like Advance Auto Parts and speaking of Advance Auto Parts I want to thank them for supporting the video and sending out all of these U-joints so I could show you guys how to install them in your vehicle not only did they send me the u-joints for my truck but they sent me high-strength u joints for my mustang for when we supercharge it and high-strength u joints for my Corvette I Also, have a couple of different types here So I could show you the differences so you can pick the correct one to buy so let me go over What u joint is right for your vehicle when buying u joints? There's two main options you want to consider the first option is whether or not the u joint is greasable right here You can see a zerk fitting that goes into the u joint and allows you to grease all four caps by connecting a grease gun this one does not have that zerk fitting and it's greased for the life of the u-joint the benefit of being able to grease your U joint is when the u joints get old and the grease comes out Or there's dirt and debris that gets in here You could add the grease the grease could force all that dirt and debris out and you'll have some new grease in your bearing caps Which could make it last longer the benefit of a non greasable is that there's no grease channel in here So these are actually stronger. Also. This is exactly What stock was it's non greasable and it lasted 150,000 miles so both of these will work great And it really depends what you want in a u joint now if you're gonna pick a greasable one There's two different styles so we have one that could be greased from the middle right here And then we have one that could be greased on the end cap I like the end cap better because it's a lot easier to Reach the end cap when it's installed in the vehicle And besides grease ability the next thing to consider is the string so for this you have the OEM strength And then you have the high strength u joints if you have a daily driver the OEM strength is perfect But this right here the high strength is going in my Corvette and this right here the high strength is going in my drift car And we're going to be super charging it Also, if you have an off-road vehicle where your drive shafts are at steep angles you might want to go for the super strength But for a normal car or daily driver. This is perfectly fine Just another option to consider and all these u joints come with the proper retaining Clips So you could do a complete install in your vehicle? I'll be sure to link all these different types of u joints in the description so you can check them out as well as all The different tools that you'll need for this job, and let's go get started Let me show you how to remove the u joint the first thing you want to do very very important because you're going to be Taking the drive shaft out You need a chock off the wheels since the drive shaft is going to get removed even if your cars in park the transmissions Disconnected and your car my troll you want to be very safe under your vehicle Chuck off the wheels Engage the emergency brake and we could get started now before we get started we want to put on our safety glasses and before removing Any of these bolts to take the drive shaft out you want to grab a paint marker and you want to mark the differential to the flange and the Flange to the drive shaft and do the exact same thing to the front of the drive shaft Mark everything so you can match it back up that way when we remove the drive shaft We could reinstall exactly in line where it is right now And you definitely want to do this because all this is lined up and balanced from the factory You could actually see a balanced weight right here So we want to be able to install this exactly the way it is so we won't run into any Vibration issues now we can go and remove the drive shaft. It's simple to do There's two bolts on this side and two bolts on the opposite side when those come out this will come down I like to spray penetrating fluid on the bolts that hold the drive shaft in to make them easier to remove and you might as Well spray the ends of the u-joint So they can start soaking for when we remove them later on now every car will be different But in this case my truck uses a 12-point bolt so make sure you use a 12 point socket So let's get in there with our breaker bar and break it free good and now we can loosen it the rest of the way and to make it quick and easy I'm using a ratcheting wrench and Beautiful, that's the first one out now. Let's do the bottom one and loosen it up the rest is away with a wrench that's the second one so let's get the last two bolts on the other side follow the same exact process crack it loose with the Breaker bar and finish it off with the wrench good on to the last one here, and this one isn't coming off That's pretty tight on there so if this happens to you. Don't worry There's a simple solution to help loosen this bolt and that's using a torch and heating up the metal surrounding the bolt the heats gonna Expand this metal and loosen its grip on the bolt and after about a minute or two of heating it up you could easily break It loose with a breaker bar and then start loosening it up with the wrench now before we remove this bolt completely I like to slide a jack stand under the drive shaft so the driveshaft won't fall down now we could loosen the bolt the rest Of the way and with all four bolts removed give the yoke ITAT because it's probably stuck on there good now the back is free So with the rear of the driveshaft disconnected now we can move to the front And if you're working on the front you should have a drip pan ready just in case Because in most vehicles in the front the driveshaft, and the yoke is going to slide right out of the transmission And you'll know it does that because there's bolts holding this in but in this scenario on my truck This doesn't slide out it won't budge. We have to remove these four bolts again, so I'm gonna quickly do that that's one That's two three and Four then tap the edge of the yoke to vibrate it loose good And now we can carefully remove the drive shaft being sure not to drop it or bang It around if you dent or bend the drive shaft you're gonna have to replace it all right so with our drive shaft Removed now. I can show you how to replace the u-joints and like I said before we're gonna be using two different methods we're gonna be using the press method and the hammer method so you want to find yourself a good place to work a workbench or I'm using my tailgate in a little portable workbench, and if you have a vise is gonna make this job really simple if you don't have a vise you could use something like a clamp and clamp the drive shaft to a Bench now no matter what you use never clamp down on the tube of the drive shaft This tube isn't designed to get an outside force pushing inwards like this And you could easily dent or bend it and that'll ruin the drive shaft It'll cause vibrations and ruin the structural integrity So instead what you want to do is you want to clamp down at the end of the drive shaft? Either at the yolk or flange or right here on the drive shaft where it's structurally supported so with the driveshaft Clamped in the first thing we want to do is remove the retaining clip, and there's two styles of retaining Clips So this is the first style all you have to do is grab some type of needle nose pliers Ones that have a little lip on the edge is a really nice you get the tips of the pliers on the clip squeeze down And pull the clip out just like that It's that easy So let's flip the drive shaft over and do the others and that Retaining clip is stuck in there so soak it in some penetrating fluid and work your way around the clip with a flathead screwdriver To free it up, and if you break the clip just like I did don't worry just use the flat-head screwdriver and Hammer it out, so that's the second clip removed and that's the third one and Finally that's the last one so now that all four retaining clips are removed We're ready to remove the u-joint, but real quick before we do that this u joint uses an external type retaining clip And there's one more style I want to show you just in case you encounter it and that is this type of u joint you can see here There's no external clip on this u joint so instead It uses these little internal c clips which are found back here so to remove this style clip what you do is you get your flathead screwdriver And you can see the edge of the clip is right there You want to get your screwdriver put a right at the edge? Then hammer the screwdriver to pop it out and remove it the rest of the way with the pliers and same thing for the other side hammer it out as much as you can and Pull it out the rest of the way with the pliers, and that's all there is to it I just wanted to show you that real quick Just in case you have these inside clips rather than the outside clips So now you know what you need to do alright? So once you're done removing the retaining clips the next step is to remove and replace the u-joint and to do that I'm gonna be showing you the first method which is using a press. This is actually really simple the press fits right in this hole Like so and we're gonna press that u joint downwards, and so you can see what's going on at the bottom I'm going to turn this sideways now at the bottom of the press It's important that you don't block the u joint from coming out if this press is like that the u joint is gonna get stopped And you're not going to be able to push it out so you want to align the press just like that so the u joint is free to move all the way out and at the Top we want the press to press the u joint right in the center So let's spray some penetrating fluid in there, which will help lubricate the u joint and make it easier to press out now We're ready to tighten this down and the easiest way to do it is with an impact gun It makes it real simply just pause it right down and that'll press right out, but since not everyone has an impact gun I'm just gonna be using one of these ratchets It's extendable so I could get more leverage all you have to do is Tighten it down and You want to tighten the press until the u-joint cap pops all the way out like that then we could flip it over and use The pliers like these tongue and groove pliers to pull the cap out just twist and pull and it should come right out Now we can press the u joint end the other way until it bottoms out and it won't press anymore then flip it over and Remove the other cap and with both caps removed now the u joint has enough room to come out alright So it's that simple And we're applying the same method to remove the u joint from the flange spray some penetrating fluid to make it easier to press out Tighten the press until the u joint pops out then we could flip it over Grab our pliers and remove the cap now We have the clearance to remove the u joint and it's really that simple Now before we install the new u joint we need to prep both the flange and the driveshaft So grab a thin screwdriver or pick and the first thing to do is to clean out the retaining clip channels you want to remove All the loose rust and dirt, so the new retaining clips could snap all the way in next grab a file And we want to deburr the edge of the boar on the drive shaft, and you can see there's a large bird Which is a perfect example? Of why this steps so important furs could damage the new you joint when you go to press them in so carefully lightly file around the whole edge You don't want to remove a lot of material just smooth out that edge like this One last thing make sure you don't scratch the inside bore with the file You only want to get right on the edge so after D bearing both the top edge? And the bottom edge of the bore so it's no longer rough the next thing to do is grab a scouring pad or a thousand Grit sandpaper and lightly clean the inside of the board to remove any surface rust the goal here is to have a clean smooth surface for our new u-joints to get pressed into So clean up the retaining clip channels deeper the edges and clean out the inside of the bores for the flange and the drive shaft now both the drive shaft And the flange are cleaned up and ready to go So let me show you how to install a brand new u joint First you want to remove any two caps opposite of each other that way you could slide the u joint Into the flange and anytime you remove the caps a quick tip is to always Inspect the inside of the cap and make sure the needle bearings haven't fallen down And if they have just restock them with a clean flat head screwdriver now We can add the caps and you're gonna push it in by hand and you want to make sure it goes in straight not at An angle and then get the press and press each cap in you want to press it So it just passes the retaining clip channel And then you could install the retaining clip making sure it pops into the channel now We want to do the same thing to the other side press that cap in and install the retaining clip good alright Is that? simple to install a new u joint so the u joint is in the flange and one thing I want to test is to see How hard it is to move this u joint and this u joint is really? Hard to move if we installed it like this in the truck those bearings could burn out and cause the u joint to go bed This u joint shouldn't be this hard to move so a little trick grab your hammer And you want to tap right on the edge of the flange a couple of taps on one side and a couple of taps on The other and check that out. That is so easy to move now. There is no resistance so with that all done now Let's install our drive shaft to the u joint and you remember we made these marks on the drive shaft So we want to line that up with the marks on the flange So make sure you line it up So we install the flange and the drive shaft in the correct orientation so remove the caps Fit the u joint into the drive shaft like so Install the top cap and the bottom cap and press in each cap so that you could install the retaining clips Now flip it over and repeat the process press the cap in all the way and install the retaining clip One less thing to do just like before with the flange where we loosened it up with the hammer It's nice and smooth we want to do the same thing for the driveshaft because this is hard to move so tap both ears of the driveshaft to settle you joint into place and Perfect nice and loose finally we need to add some grease And you want to use a high-temperature wheel bearing grease So grab your grease gun and since it's pretty tight in here the nozzle doesn't fit one thing I do with the grease gun tip is shaved down one side of the nozzle with a grinder to Make it thinner and that works Perfect now it fits and we could pump the grease into the u-joint you want to pump until you start seeing grease come out of The boots like that then get in there and clean that grease up So it doesn't fling everywhere when you go for a drive good, and that's all there is to it That's how you use a press to replace a u-joint now that you know how to press it out Let's flip this drive shaft Around and we have one more u joint to replace and for this I'm going to show you the hammer method with the flange clamp Down add some penetrating fluid and you want to use the largest socket you could find that fits inside the u-joint hole this one is Perfect so now we can hammer this out Just put the socket against the u-joint cap and you want a hammer straight down using pretty strong hits and that's all there is to It so let's remove the cap and slide the u joint out of the flange now We're going to set the drive shaft on top of the vise so close up the vise a little and the drive shaft will stay In place as we hammer that u joint out Then flip it over and remove the cap from the drive shaft now the u joint comes right out So with the drive shaft, and the flange completely prepped all the clip channels are cleaned out It's d bird and the bores are cleaned so it's nice and smooth now We could install the new u joint so remove the caps and fit the u joint into the drive shaft add the caps to each side and Carefully hammer the caps into place so you can install the retaining clip flip the drive shaft over and follow the same exact procedure It's really this simple. There's nothing to it finally Let's get the u joint fitted into the flange like so and the cap to the top and to the bottom Hammer the cap into place and install the retaining clip now We can flip the drive shaft over and repeat hammer the cap in and install the retaining clip don't forget to tap the outside of the ears on the flanges and the drive shaft to settle the u joint and Lastly add some grease so there we go now You know how to properly replace U joints using both the press method The hammer method and this driveshaft has brand new u-joints in it and is ready to go in the truck actually There's one more very important thing. I want to show you real quickly This is a driveshaft from a Chevy, Colorado And I got it from a junkyard just to show you this because it's that important if you follow the driveshaft all the way to The end you could see this little hole here And there's also two holes at the end of the yoke and these holes are plastic injected It's mostly found on General Motors vehicles But I wanted to show you because if you do have this you're not going to be able to press out or hammer out these u joints without first melting the plastic out All you have to do is get a torch heat up the plastic in each ear until it's melted Which is gonna take a few minutes, and then once it's melted you could press out that u joint And I thought that was pretty important to include so if you have plastic injected u joints now You won't get stuck and you know how to replace them, and when you do replace them Don't worry about the plastic that was in there. You don't use that anymore You'll use all the retaining clips that come with the brand-new u joint so now let's get back to installing the driveshaft in my truck So we could go for a test drive So get the driveshaft in place then use a wire brush to brush away the loose rust on both mating surfaces So they bolt up nice and flat after that we need to match the green lines So we could install this Exactly the way We removed it then tighten all four bolts by hand and be sure to use removable threadlocker on each of them to prevent Vibrations from loosening them out as you drive and since our torque wrench doesn't fit I'm using a long wrench to tighten down the bolts in a crisscross pattern to about 80 Foot-pounds and the last thing I like to do is mark the bolts So you know if any of loosened after I go drive around all right with the front done. Let's bolt in the rear It's the same process clean the mating surfaces So they're nice and smooth Align the driveshaft to our marks add the bolts with the thread Locker on them tighten them all down in a crisscross pattern 280 Foot-pounds and mark them with a paint marker so we know if they loosen and there you go It's that simple to replace your u joints with the driveshaft in let's go for a ride All right my favorite part the test drive, I don't hear any noise I don't feel any vibration this truck feels great And that is how you replace your u-joints so hopefully this video is helpful if it was Remember to give it a thumbs up Also, if you're not a subscriber consider subscribing as always all the products and tools I used in this video are linked in the description
I just realized that every car that he and his family has is a Ford in one way or another. (except the C4)
Another solid video from Chrisfix. I love how he explains and demonstrates everything so clearly.
Great video. Cool transitions. Very helpful.