After seeing how thin my front pads were the other day I figured I would redo my front brakes. Got new rotors and pads even figured i would replace the soft lines. Get in there and cant ca-lapse the pistons on the first caliper. Got around that and figure I need to just do a rebuild on them. I am ok with that but while spinning the hub on the right front I hear a clicking noise and start looking closer and see the u joint moving. It appears that at least one of the cups has no bearings left in it. Figuring the left probably is no better or close to being gone I get to do both sides now. The thing that kills me the most is that while I am in that deep you might as well do my favorite, the BALL JOINTS. Man am I getting a severe head ache.

Better to get done all at once and have it be over than to do it part by part because of the over lapping labor.

Hate your logic. Thats why I am shopping for parts already. Dont want to go this deep again anytime soon. We have 2 drive line shops here in town. Hope one can help come Monday at least with u joints anyway, and maybe ball joints and asprin. Thank goodness I have next week off too.

Well I did manage to tear into the right side today. With the yard I already had started, and the heat it has been fun. On top of that since I have no truck to drive I have been using the wife's Saturn. Great little car, key word "little", to get around in. It  is the getting in and out thats fun when you butt is only 6" off the ground, 

 

Anyway the last time I did this was before finding the forum and I spent i dont know how many hours trying beat the unit bearing out of the front end. When I put all back together I was very liberal with the anti seize and all I had to do was back off the bolts and whack the some and off it came. Got down to the drive shaft pretty quick. I have a ball joint press and decided to go ahead and remove and replace the u joint since I had 2 here from when I replace the unit bearings 6+ years ago. they were solid then and left them in there. Two of the cups were dry and one was devoid of bearings and the opposite side had crumbs of bearings left in it.  Getting the old one out was fun. Kind of reminiscent of removing the old unit bearings because they had been in there for near 15 years. My press did not have the proper receiver cup to press the u joint out completely so a trip to the hardware store was in order. Turns out a 1 1/2" X 1 1/4" bushing make a perfect cup for removal of the u joint. The new one installed quite easily. They are Precision Universal Joints made in the USA, but greasable. The cups on the old one have Spicer on them with no part# just the letters C O P in a weird configuration. Not sure what to make of it. 

 

So the dive shaft is ready to go back on. The ball joints on the right are still tight and I am not going to replace them. I don't want to wait 3 days to get them and don't want to pay a fortune to get them here quickly so I am rolling the dice. Sorry @IBMobile time just aint on my side. 2 years 8 months and 12 days from now I retire and I am counting on being able to park the truck then and really go over it. Of course if things work in 1 year 8 months and 10 days I will be headed to @Mopar1973Man house with money, parts and an assortment of whiskey and beer in hand for a fun week of auto repair.

 

On a side note I have not gotten in to the drivers side to know what else might be wrong there. And I left out I have to new unit bearings that will probably go ahead and install, just not sure yet since the old ones seem fine. Got both of them from a member here some years ago for $150 for the pair. The ones I replaced back then cost me about $700 for the pair.

 

 

I got the passenger side all buttoned up yesterday just need to bleed the lines. Tore down the drivers side and all looks good on this side. No play in the joint every thing is nice and tight. Still might replace the u joint and unit bearing since I am there. 

 

I did notice about an 1/8" ti 3/6" rotational play when spinning the hub(left front). It corresponds with the same play in the front drive shaft as the slack is taken up in the transfer case. The right side does not seem to do it. Anything there I should be concerned with? I have similar play in the rear drive shaft, it has been there a long time and I have noticed no ill affect from it.

@Mopar1973Man I replaced my right front unit bearing and might just go ahead and replace the left. There does not seem to be anything wrong with them other that the have 170k on them. Thought they might help you with you tone wheel problem. One of the sensor wires has rubbed on the wheel but not all the way thru the insulation. Never any trouble out of either of them.

If I'm reading that correctly the rotational play in the axles and driveshaft sounds like backlash between the ring and pinion gears. Totally normal. 

 

I was thinking along those lines but not sure. I only know 2 things about diffs, one change the fluid, 2 i dont know any thing else about how they work.

 

On the other hand I now have new iron on both sides. Brakes, rotors, and  ujoints. So far so good. I was surprised that after 14 years and 8 months of driving 378k miles that the secondu joint was still in good shape. Grease still present in all the cups and no play in it either. This out of 1 ungreaseable  joints. Not sure when the other went but maybe that was the source of the loud bang I experienced about 3 months ago from the right front. I bought a floor jack a couple months ago with a HF super coupon for $60. It is a 3 ton rapid pump. When I bought my truck I had a 4 ton bottle jack that was a pain to use on the truck, the moved up to a 12 ton. Vast improvement. But the floor jack was worth every cent.

 

The guy in the picture is my grandson Chandler. He was last here when he helped me change out my 6 speed. He was a big help and we go the right side twice a fast than me alone. Great young man. Just graduated high school. 

You're a good man for spending time like that with your grandson.  I spent a lot of time like that with a grandfather, but he passed away 20 years ago when I was a teenager.  My paternal grandpa is still alive but we've never had much of a relationship.  I feel bad because my boys probably won't have that special connection with either of their grandfathers either.  I'm willing to bet that he'll never forget spending that time with you. 

 

Did you change out the hub/bearing unit as well?

Edited June 29, 20168 yr by Hawkez

On 6/25/2016 at 9:34 PM, dripley said:

Of course if things work in 1 year 8 months and 10 days I will be headed to @Mopar1973Man house with money, parts and an assortment of whiskey and beer in hand for a fun week of auto repair.

 

Ummmm... I'll hang my sign out... 

2 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Ummmm... I'll hang my sign out... 

Feel the love. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO any thing. Wait, I could just sit out by the driveway and drink all the beer and whiskey till you get tired of hearing me sing.

 

2 hours ago, Hawkez said:

You're a good man for spending time like that with your grandson.  I spent a lot of time like that with a grandfather, but he passed away 20 years ago when I was a teenager.  My paternal grandpa is still alive but we've never had much of a relationship.  I feel bad because my boys probably won't have that special connection with either of their grandfathers either.  I'm willing to bet that he'll never forget spending that time with you. 

 

Did you change out the hub/bearing unit as well?

I am very happy that him and I got to do this. He also helped me swap out my 6 speed several years back. Him and his 2 brothers, my son, and my brother and real family gathering. It is good to be around them. I have 9 grand children. Due to my work and two of the my children in the military, we have not been able to spend alot of time together. The distances they were away and timing on me being at home. Just did not work out well. Chandlers mom made extra effort to get back home just to be sure we had some relationship with them. On my last job I got to stay with my daughter and my 2 youngest granddaughters for 5 months. It has been a great year for me and grandchildren. 

 

On top of that Chandler is going to go to Community college and study auto mechanics. Hopefully he will learn alot about electronics and be able to teach me a thing or twelve. Lord knows I need the help.

 

I never knew my grandfathers, one died before I was born and the other not long after. My maternal grandmother lived with us until I was about 15 I guess. While her and I did not work on cars together we did have a special relationship. She is the one who helped me understand my parents were not being hard on me they were just being parents. Great lady that I have many fond memories of. She was born around 1882 and her perspective of things came from whole different time. 

 

As far as the truck goes, we did put in new unit bearings. You can see it shining behind the hub nut. I bought 2 of a old member here for $150. As I remember he sold his truck and wanted rid of them. No marking on either of them so I hope they hold up. Both oe ones failed at 216k miles and they ones I replaced them with had no marking either. I paid a whole lot more that $150 for one of those. Thought my next job was starting on the 7-5 and did not do the ball joints. Hope I dont regret that. I just found out the job got pushed another week. It was all back together by then.

 

18 minutes ago, dripley said:

Feel the love. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO any thing. Wait, I could just sit out by the driveway and drink all the beer and whiskey till you get tired of hearing me sing.

 

Oh OK... I'll give you JAG1's spot at the blue spruce tree and the electric rock.

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Oh OK... I'll give you JAG1's spot at the blue spruce tree and the electric rock.

Cool. A place to plug in the amp. Do you think you could get an electric potato? 

Edited June 29, 20168 yr by dripley

 

No. Absolutely not. To hard to find electric rocks in the state let alone an "electric potato" you can buy one and show it to me...

 

Nice to see your getting that truck back into good shape though. You still need to make that 500k mark yet...

Edited June 29, 20168 yr by Mopar1973Man

Time is a hard thing to find to work on the truck. The brakes were going to be easy until I saw that u joint. But now all is new except those ball joints. Steering is still pretty good considering the ball joints and tie rod ends all have about 100k on them. 

 

The way I figure 500k would be something, but all I need is about 460k to beat you back from the moon.

 

Many thanks to your site and all the members who have helped me get as far as I have. Could not have done it all without ya'll.