So tell me about my u-joint

[goof4080]

Pulled my rear and DS, etc and inspected my u-joints, but I don't really know what I'm looking at. The part where it mount looks smooth and ok but the little strap between the bearing caps is broken. What is this? What should I look for and should I replace them?

Thanks

[tdevil55]

That little strap is just a connector that keeps the caps from falling off when its off the rear and loose. Won't hurt anything if it breaks off other than you can loose a cap when moving the DS around. For the ujoints, you need to check to see how loose they are, if they are real stiff, then you may need to replace them. I just did the ujoints on my stock DS, not a fun job, but got it done. It's a pain because the stock DS has a plastic mold that runs through it holding the caps in place, and it take alot of heat and pressure to get the old joints out.

[Supershafts]

If you have no idea what to do, bring that to your local driveline shop and let them replace the joints...

Heating AL shafts is something only VERY few professional people that deal with AL should ever do, and they like myself will tell you to never heat the AL...

If you don't have the right tools to hold the shaft right and put the pressure on the weld yoke ears right, you will F it up and your class lesson will cost you $350 to $500 depending...

You have 3r series joints and the replacement joints are 5-3147x or 5-795x or SPL25-6x (the last 2 are non greasable spl series)

[2002ssslp]

If the U-Joint cap spins freely and is not loose then put it back together.