Replacing U-Joints

Well, after beating the shit out of my xj the last 2 weekends, something had to break. Went to work today and there was a binding/clicking noise coming from the front driver side wheel. Got home and lifted her up and spun the wheels/turned the wheel and pretty sure it was the u-joint binding up. The jeep has about 130,000 on it, so it wasnt too surprising.

My question is, how long would it take to replace the u-joint. I read the tech articles but it didnt didnt give a estimated amount of time to replace the particular u-joint.

yeah know i had to replace mine last year around september * the drivers side went...should of went ahead and did the passenger one too*

anyhoo....the drivers side was a PITA!.....to get out that is...but you gotta remember it was an 89 with about 140ish on the clock..so it took a few hours to get out the hub assy and the rest was cake...changing the ujoint part and reassy was easy

plan on a few hours.....i usually plan on a few hours no matter what i do on my xj anymore cause something always seems to either go wrong or i find something else to fix in the process

Jeep9717 said:

Well, after beating the shit out of my xj the last 2 weekends, something had to break. Went to work today and there was a binding/clicking noise coming from the front driver side wheel. Got home and lifted her up and spun the wheels/turned the wheel and pretty sure it was the u-joint binding up. The jeep has about 130,000 on it, so it wasnt too surprising.

My question is, how long would it take to replace the u-joint. I read the tech articles but it didnt didnt give a estimated amount of time to replace the particular u-joint.

Click to expand...

It all depends on how bound up it all is. When I did mine two of the caps were bone dry/siezed. For both sides it took about 4 hours. A friend was helping out, showing me how its done, but I'm a novice wrencher with minimal hand tools. With the right equipment/less rust/less damaged joints, it totally would have gone faster

anotherskait said:

With the right equipment/less rust/less damaged joints, it totally would have gone faster

Click to expand...

the story of my life.... [though not so much the tools part]

You need a BFH and a vice. Clamp the shaft in there, and go to town with the BFH. It helps if you have a brass drift or some similar "rod" of soft metal to strike at it with.

If it isn't working your BFH isn't big enough, go find a BiggerFH.

Repeat the process till the old one is out.

Then use lots of greas while gently tapping the new u-joint back together.

As for time, the first time, it usually takes about an hour or two. After doing lots of them, 15 minutes.

Okay.
remove tires. best to do both sides at once so that they wear at the same rate (or similar at least)

when replacing ujoints, I use pb blaster liberally (better than wd-40). you need a few specific parts...male torque set to remove the brake caliper, a rather large C-clamp is used to compress the cup and allow you to pull the caliper from the rotor. hang this up with some zip ties, don't let it hang by the brake line.

remove rotor.

remove cotter pin holding the cover over the stub axleshaft nut. remove nut with proper tools (you may wish to use pbblaster again and also clean up the threads with a wire brush). use a brass hammer or large brass punch pressed against the end of the stub shaft, and smack it with a regular hammer to push the axleshaft back into the axle. this will allow "easy" removal of the hub.

using a female torque set, remove the 3 torque bolts holding the hub assembly to the knuckles. then using the hammer you will have to hit on the edges of the part the rotor goes over on the hub. don't smack it in one spot too much...go around it in a star pattern. hopefully it will come out without upsetting the bearing cage.

pop it off, slide off the dust shield, slide axle shaft out.

take a grinder/cutting wheel and use it to make a line/notch on the inner and outer shafts so that you know which side matches which (you don't want them out of balance on re-install)

take a torch and torch the center/close to the inner ends of the cups off. it's much faster to remove this way. the center will fall out leaving you with both sides of the shaft seperated.

using the bench clamp (vice), tighten it to less than the width of the ujoint end of the shaft, but more than the cap. using a punch or the ball end of a ball pin hammer, hammer the caps out. be careful to NOT hit the actual shaft. repeat 4 times

then get the new ujoints taken apart, be careful not to lose the rollers, set the central part of the ujoint inside the shaft. next, slide one cap over the ujoint from the outer end (careful not to lose rollers) and slide ujoint in as far as you can. hold ujoint and tap cap with hammer to get it in. do the same with each side, and when you're done, you need to cradle the joints by the ends and hammer downwards before you put in the retaining clips...this will protect against binding (they can't be too tight or too lose or they will fail).

insert grease fitting and grease until each cap accepts grease.

re-install in reverse order of removal.


this way it takes 2.5 hours per side if you're good, 3.5 on first try in my experience

I just did mine this weekend. Start to finish, including three trips to the parts store,was about 3 hours.

I didn't seperate the hub from the outer shaft so that saved me some time. The other thing that saved me a bunch of time.... a 12 ton hydraulic press.

Wasn't the easiest job i've done on the jeep but it wasn't the hardest by far.

mine took 2 days my rotors still had "virgin" clips and were soo rusted on I finally had to heat rotors to the point of sizzle when I spit on them and beat with R.B.F.H. ReallyBFH (8#er). Be sure to replace lugs before hitting between the studs.
Cheap 13mm 12pt. socket to beat the hell out of unit bearing boltsw/socket in place.
and as to the torque of the hub nut I used motor (not,rotor) oil and reduced torque by half.

I agree on having right tools being priceless. Kid @ Big-O said he'd remove and press new joints and two damaged studs for $20. After all was said and done I used the $20 to buy a new joint and visit P&P for a stub shaft and now the gease zerk has been destroyed by the unti bearing bolt heads.

You need a BFH and a vice. Clamp the shaft in there, and go to town with the BFH. It helps if you have a brass drift or some similar "rod" of soft metal to strike at it with.

If it isn't working your BFH isn't big enough, go find a BiggerFH.

Repeat the process till the old one is out.

Then use lots of greas while gently tapping the new u-joint back together.

As for time, the first time, it usually takes about an hour or two. After doing lots of them, 15 minutes.

this is exactly what is was for me, and mine has lived in Michigan its whole life. If I hadn't stopped to eat dinner, it would have taken me 45 min. the key is the first sentence of what Karl said, and a friend is also a must.