I was wondering, should i take it to a mechanic where ill be billed for hours worked on it and supplies or can i just save some money by doing it my self, how hard is it to do and do i need any new parts or do i just have to grease or oil it up a bit

 

If you own a hammer and a socket smaller than the bearing caps, it will cost you less than $15 and take about 15-20 min to change a u-joint.

 

You mean you cant oil it up or what though because i dont have another u joint or can you get them for that at an autoparts store

 

You can grease them if you have a grease gun and high temp grease, but you may have already killed it and they are cheap and easy to replace. You can get them at any autoparts store, but make sure you get the right size bearing caps because they come in different sizes for our trucks.

 

Huh, would the store know any of the sizes like in there computer system if i told them basics specs about my truck or what, and would the new set need to be oiled or greased up or are they already to use

 

If the '87s are like my '95, their computer will pull up 2 or 3 different sizes. I don't know what the autoparts store guys will know, it really depends on who works there. But my guess is they'll have no idea which size you need.

There are several ways you can approach this... The easiest thing to do is buy a u-joint, walk out to your truck and hold it up to the one in your driveshaft and compare them, if it's wrong, exchange it for the next size. Or, if you have something else to drive is take your u-joint out and take it with you, or if your truck is a 4x4, remove the rear driveshaft and u-joint and make it front wheel drive to go to the store and back. Or, if you own a vernier caliper, measure the diameter of the bearing caps.

Yes, you'll have to grease the new u-joint once you get it set in place and back on the truck. That will be your very last step.

 

Ok, and are there any specific tourque requirements for how tight to bolt it all back up
and is there anything else i should know before i attempt anything

 

My suggestion to you is download the '95 Factory Service Manuals located in FAQ2. I know it's not exactly for your truck, but it will be close enough and give you good info on how to do some of these repairs.

Here are the torque specs:

 

I was also talkin with my dad and he said he's done it a good amount of times so it shouldnt be too hard,
he said he had a case where a work truck used mainly for snow plowing and towing a trailer at the time had a U joint break while on the road and couldnt stop and had to drive it to a parking lot and the shaft just ripped the end apart on the road and he pulled the shaft off and stuck it in 4 wheel drive and drove it like that for a week until he either got another shaft or an end for the shaft
though that was several years ago because i barily remember the truck

 

Its harder to take of the driveshaft in most the cases Ive done than it is do replace the joint. Half hour or so job. nothing major.