2004 Ram 2500 4x4

I will be pulling the rear driveshaft out tomorrow to replace both u joints. My questions to those whom have done this before is should I put gear in "Neutral" before pulling the driveshaft?

Should I put the gear P, R, D, in "neutral"?
Should I put the 4H, 4L, 2H to "neutral" also?

I know when the any of the above are in neutral the key won't come out, should I then just disconnect the negative battery cable?

Any other advise will be welcome. I will document this and post the result on this forum in the future.

Many thanks

 

It won't hurt to diconnect the battery, then set the parking brake. Before you unbolt anything, mark the location of the driveline flange to the differential flange, use paint , also run a stripe of paint down the drive line so all the yokes and flanges are in the exact same alignment as they were originally, if not, you change the driveline regulation, and may develop a vibration that will cause you to have the driveline rebalanced, or live with a vibration and premature u-joint failure.

Put it in neutral, so you can rotate the shaft

 

Chock the wheels, and leave it in neutral, mark the slip yoke to the shaft.
If you have a 2 piece shaft, mark the slip yoke behind the hanger to the shaft and the slip to the stub.

If you have a single piece AL shaft, then mark the slip to the shaft, and if you do not have the correct al coated caps for the joints, get a imron or urethane based paint and coat those caps lightly before putting them into the shaft.

If this is a 2004, you have AAM shafts and either 1415 series or 1485 series which aren't the same as the dana spicer series, becareful when you get the joints, or see your local driveline shop for the correct joints

 

Friends, I have a quick update with photo writeup.

Link, just copy and paste if the URL link doesn't work.
goo.gl/Zrt4R

I have not completed the job yet so I will post more update soon. For now you can see the 20 some photos of what's been done.

Thank you for all your help and advices thus far.

 

Those are AAM joints, so make sure you either get those same joints or the neapco 3-0415, if you get spicers the caps need to be machined .005 each.

I gotta video myself doing joints, that looked like it took all week. . .

All of the AAM series joints are .005 wider than the spicer common followed series, hence there 1355 (1350) 1415 (1410) and 1485 (1480)

 

Update. I completed the job replacing the u Joints and posted a 64 photo write-up step by step. Thanks for all your advises.

Link to my write-up: You may have to copy and paste it.
goo.gl/Zrt4R

 

Thats great. If you would convert that to PDF and host the file for download (or send it to me for hosting) that would be better and we could move it to the FAQs

 

when u say to "pm" you what is that ? im to not only this forum but ive never posted in any forum before, so please dont hate me right off the bat for my inexperience ok guys but i do have some real probs. wth my beloved ram i neeed help with. i have an 05 ram 1500 2wd wth 5.7 l hemi and it has 197,000 miles on it . ive owned since it left the show room floor here in phx az. its began to start hard and go into limp mode and keeps giving the 0335, 0315, and 0300 codes and ive replaced ALOT of components , all the work i do myself.

 

sorry , imeant to say im not only "NEW" to forums blah blah

 

ive replaced battery, crank/cam shaft pos. sensors twice, mass air flow sensor, pcv, egr, plugs , pugwires, oxygen sensors, wheel speed sensors, alternatror, thorughly cleaned th throttle body twice correct oil and oil filter air filter. umm ran seafoam thru it twice , waterpump , fuel pump , ive only put 89 octane and up for its whole life, should i have the pcm flashed and the updates installed before tackling the timing chain? (because the timing chain appears to be really difficult. not impossible. just difficult). please , ill gladly and openly listen to any suggestions from you guys n gals of the mopar family?