Well I finally broke down and took the truck apart so that I could change the u-joints on the front axle. I took me a few hours to get both hubs off and pull the axle shafts. I don't have a press so I had to take the shafts to a driveline shop and I won't get them back until tomorrow. Hopefully everything will go back together and operate smoothly. I'll let you know how it turns out. If I would have been thinking I would have taken pics for a DIY thread.

 

A vice and some properly sized sockets work great for pressing the joints out.

 

Yea. I'm hoping to get a workbench so I can get a vice.

 

You need a vise, not a vice. We all have vices@ hee hee!

 

you can use a ball joint press or my favortie is a old brake rotor that you can put on the ground and wack away on it

 

I got the axle shafts back today with the new joints installed. It tookme about 2.5 hours to put everything back together. I all went very smoothly. No more grinding or jerking or squeaking in the front end. It drives awesome. It only cost me $58 for the ujoints and $20 to get them pressed in. I bet it would have cost me at least $500 to get it done at the dealer. Overall it took me about 6-7 hrs.

By the way I greased the hubs while I had them off. I just greased them through theABS sensor hole. I just thought it couldn't hurt anything.

 

I've read about the greasing of the bearing on the DIY page as well as the forum that had pics of the hub being taken apart. I'm wondering has anyone else done this and how well this works. Thanks.

 

if you have front abs the easiest way is to do what was done above. I wouldnt recomend taking them apart unless you dont have ABS

 

I wouldn't do it unless I had another reason to take it apart. It wouldn't be too much work though, maybe an hour per side.

 

I have greased mine through the ABS sensor hole with no problems. I also did a DIY on this forum not to grease the front wheel bearings. I did it to anti sieze all of the parts to make it easier to take it apart in the future. I had read numerous posts of people having major problems getting the front end apart after 5-6 years, so I am hoping that this will help.