got the press. Auto store rental part is not designed for heavy duty trucks - barely fit around the u joint. 3 hours to get X2 caps off. Still have 2 more caps to go.
Any advice on what to so when you have 1 cap off? Do you need to press the other cap back through the U in the other direction to get it out? I tried that, but could not get the cap to go back into the hole. The part does not even look rusty, but it is sure a battle to get it to move a mm.

 

Depends on the joint, and where the retainer for it is.

To remove them, I make sure all the retainers are off, set the shaft so it is supported on the 'ears', set a block of wood on it, and smack the wood so it drives the shaft down. (hence, the u-joint cap UP, and out of the ear.) Just roll it over to knock out the next one. I can usually change 'em out in less than five minutes. (just changing the joint.....)

 

 

Ball joints and U joints all look original to me. Thats what you get when you drive like a grandpa! (most the time).

So I got the old U joint out. Got the new one put it, and got X3 of the retainer clips in, but then I see that my forth retainer clip will not fit because the axle portion is bent down at the tip, covering the valley for the clip.

My plan is to remove the new joint and bend it back out with a sledge axe.
So I am open to any better plans.
Like If they make super tiny bottle jacks.



Here, left side is bent


right side -


left side - notice how the valley for C clip does not line up with the face of the axle.. that is my problem

 

Looking at your pics it does seem like it is bent. Hard to tell because sometimes the inner portion of the yokes are machined flat and parallel to accomodate the c clips.
Just gonna throw this out here
sometimes a needle bearing or two get knocked out of position in the cup when installing. It ends up in the bottom or base of the cup. These prevent the cups from coming together to their proper position on the joint and thus the c clips cant be installed.

 

Looks like someone was beating on the ear with a hammer. You also have an air gap around the u-joint cap. I would be tempted to replace that side of the axle.

 

Yea there was definitely beating on the ear with a hammer. It seemed like everyone I watched just beat it as hard as possible, so i may have been too intense.
I am going to remove the joint again, and attempt to beat it straight. Same thing just backwards.

In that process, I will check the caps close of any issues with the needles.

 

So I put the axle in a bench vise, beat it with a sledge. Straightened it out a lot. Tried to do the install again, but found that it is still slightly off. Could not fit the C-clip in still. Caliper measurements indicate that i bent it 0.15 inches, and now it is about 0.05 inches off still.
So progress was made - but still not able to complete the install. Total hours in is at 17 hours.

 

 

well, I put it back in and got it all worked out. I was able to bend it back and it looks like new. The face meets up with the C-clip evenly. There is not an airgap around the cap anymore. I took one of the old caps and put it in the hole while I was beating on it, which seemed to really help keep the shape.
Took it for a drive and no squeak - so thats a good feeling.
On the old U-joint - 2 of the sides looked normal, had grease,ect. 1 side had no grease anymore, but was still clean inside and had all the pins in place. The 4th side was gunky and black and some of the pins were broken, all of them were rusted.
Total time on the job was 24 hours (including thinking time and looking for tools). 2 people most of that time.
Thanks for the help in this forum guys!
next project is trying electrical repair on my ECU - but thats another post.