Replace lower steering shaft ujoint

[Monk]

Well today of all days my steering was sticking..... Little ticks as turned....

And lol was afraid I'd have to turn quick but end up going straight if the shaft u-joint blew...

So I ordered a cross ref and will have in the am....

Figured I'd remove and get prepped tonight....

So I removed the shaft from the steering box...and the splined shaft under the truck I just pulled threw

Not that easy,more so pain......heehe

THEN remove the u-joint.....what a pain.... I clean off and used brake cleaner to see everything under the rust and grease...

Lol, I'd have to guess, it was original it was rusted on hard, hehe

Popping off the u-joints clips (all 4 on the inside part) was hard, lol as rusted hardcore on....

I used a jaw puller and slowly squeezed,all 4 sides, (compared to the old days were I'd beat it out with sockets and hammers) and tapped it with a hammer as l tightened the puller ..and it nicely all popped....

This was when I pulled it off. Clean all up nice, and now waiting...


I painted the shaft at the end and will let sit over night, then nice and dry tomorrow, when I reassemble.

[Monk]

After I popped off the first u-joint cap, was total dust!! Pins/dust everywhere

Never ever seemed these joint was greased...well the canal to the 2 cups didn't work


I'll take a finished picture after,

[Monk]

Couple pic's with the u joints installed....lol ,to add insult to injury..... The worst part of the job was me not looking where. The spline went....i probably spend a few hours indexing that damn spline.

Plus doing it yourself make the work harder...


But WOW !!! Everything under is tight, but I always thought the bias plus had a little play...so a little "saw" action from steering wheel.

Now it's insanely great, I can cough and it moved the front end.. I'm so not used to this,....I couldn't take my hand off wheel , but now, lol I know it's not safe, but I can ride a while without touching the steering wheel...hehe

[Monk]

PS, I should add....reason why I had indexing issues was I removed the spline, mid point of the shaft and was hard to "lineup"

I'm sure if the full shaft was in n the floor the shaft would sit square on the floor.. But lol was hard to be flat, so I went till the he steering wheel was straight ...

Lol , it was 90 degrees off at first, and I know it's not a big deal, but with the wheel off centre , I was going insane, that irked me big time,,,

So lol spent a lot of time making that wheel perfect