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non-serviceable u-joints


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Hey Bruce, new ones are out of the question for most of us........ about $400 from the dealership!!!! The wrecking yard is the next best bet and yes, most driveline shops should be able to "build" you a drive shaft with replacable joints that's about $100. Later, Tim

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a machine shop can rebuild them. you could even do it yourself. cut the old joint out with a sawzall type tool and then with some grinding and such you could probably do it yourself. i had a machine shop do it for about 100 dollars. can probably find a place to do it cheaper than that though. this is BETTER than a new unit because the ujoints are greasable and replaceable once they've been installed once.

 

purchase the ujoints or get the part numbers from:

http://www.staugustinefwd.com/

i think they run 29.95 per ujoint.

seems expensive, you could probably get cheaper ujoints somewhere but i already had mine rebuilt so i haven't looked into it. IF YOU DO find a cheaper source let us know i might rebuild the ones in my other XT6's.

 

i drive alot of miles (40,000+ a year) and drive off road alot in my XT6 so buying used wasn't an option....well after the 4th or 5th time it wasn't anyway. it was cheap, but i was getting tired of replacing used axles all the time. used ones are old and have been sitting around for who knows how long. depends what you want to spend and how much reliability you want.

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Thanks to all who posted. Rockford seems to be the solution for me.

 

 

 

 

Anyone know of any place that rebuilds the non-serviceable driveshafts?

 

Or is my only solution to buy new driveshaft or one from a junkyard?

 

I have an 88 GL wagon AWD.

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For those that have had the crosses and joints apart, are the crosses hollow or solid inside? A hollow cross could have a zerk hole drilled into it for greasing. A solid cross can't. My wife's '02 obw has the same pos peened joints.

(planned obsolescence)

 

Seems the original u-joints would last forever if only one could GREASE them.

 

As a side note, my '87 4X4 'Yota pickup has grease fittings on every u-joint from the factory. The original joints are still happy with 223k miles on them. (fresh grease every 6 mos.) At least somebody at Toyota has a clue!

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  • 8 years later...

For those that have had the crosses and joints apart, are the crosses hollow or solid inside? A hollow cross could have a zerk hole drilled into it for greasing. A solid cross can't. My wife's '02 obw has the same pos peened joints.

(planned obsolescence)

 

Seems the original u-joints would last forever if only one could GREASE them.

 

As a side note, my '87 4X4 'Yota pickup has grease fittings on every u-joint from the factory. The original joints are still happy with 223k miles on them. (fresh grease every 6 mos.) At least somebody at Toyota has a clue!

 

 

I just picked up a rear drive shaft from the salvage yard for my 89 gl wagon, the guy there said to drill 1/8" hole in the side of the u-joint, grease and seal w silicone and that it would last forever from there.  Is this what you are referring to?

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I took mine to a local drive line shop, and for $50 they popped out the staked-in OEM joints and installed the new u-joints w/grease zerts I had ordered from (I think, can't remember for certain) Rockauto. Believe they even checked to make sure it was balanced.

Edited by SmashedGlass
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For those that have had the crosses and joints apart, are the crosses hollow or solid inside? A hollow cross could have a zerk hole drilled into it for greasing. A solid cross can't. My wife's '02 obw has the same pos peened joints.

(planned obsolescence)

 

Seems the original u-joints would last forever if only one could GREASE them.

 

As a side note, my '87 4X4 'Yota pickup has grease fittings on every u-joint from the factory. The original joints are still happy with 223k miles on them. (fresh grease every 6 mos.) At least somebody at Toyota has a clue!

 

I did mine back before I was a member here, so I didn't even realize they were supposed to be non-replaceable.  Got my replacements from Rockauto w/ zerks.  The original joint crosses were hollow, so they could be converted to greaseable, but this was on an '81.  An '02 might be different.  I've gone over 70k miles on the replacements so far.

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I just picked up a rear drive shaft from the salvage yard for my 89 gl wagon, the guy there said to drill 1/8" hole in the side of the u-joint, grease and seal w silicone and that it would last forever from there.  Is this what you are referring to?

 

I believe that is what he was referring to, but instead of trying to seal it with silicone it would be way better tap the joint and install a zerk.  You could even install a zerk in on of the caps if needed.  You might not even need a tap if you go through one of the caps, but you would have to be really careful not to deform the cap itself and keep metal shavings out of the bearings.  

 

It's cool to see another Durango member.  I lived there for a while, and miss it quite a bit.

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