greased my truck on the weekend and found a bad u joint on the passenger side front axle.pulled it out tonight after work and got it soaking in the parts washer.for the life of me i cant see the retainer clips on the joint.are they there or am i officially blind?i changed both of them 5 or 6 years ago but cant remember if there are clips or not.

thanks

 

should be clips on the inner side, some have them some don't.

 

will lay a beating on it tomorrow after work.then we shall see where the bear pooped in the woods.lol

 

There were 2 different kinds used. Some with the C clip on the inner side, and some with the clips on the outside, a lot of times the two ears you grab rust off.

 

I havent seen an outside clip on our front axle joints and I've done plenty of them.

 

I will admit it is not common, but there was 2 different axle shafts used, and I've seen both. DANA/Spicer and American , IIRC that brand name. As a matter of fact, when I had my front drive shaft rebuilt recently, I asked the guy for two spicer joints for the axles(since I was there already), and even asked me if the clips were on the inside or out.

 

clips were on the inside.beat the living hell out of it and only got it half disassembled.give it a good soaking with pb blaster and let it sit 24 hours.few taps the next night and it came out no problems.took about 5 minutes to get the new one in and was happy to see the hub bearing and ball joints are good.gonna do the other side next week.

thanks again guys.

 

The front driveshaft yes the axle shafts no.