The crf450ish random question thread.

[Dieselfuture]

I stopped looking at factoy lieomiter, I'm playing with Nicks lieometer now, getting it pretty close. I'm at 140 on it now which seems high for 75hp injectors but it's pretty close and it's way more instant then factory one. I'm averaging about 18 now. It's about 10f out in day time.

[crf450ish]

Does anyone know the OEM spicer part #s for the front driveline U joints including the double cardan joints and centering yoke (might as well replace it)? 

 

Heard and felt a sight vibration coming from what felt like the front end. It was the U joints in the double cardan portion of my front driveline..... there toast. Took the driveline out yesterday. Should be interesting to see if I get a tad better mpg

[Dieselfuture]

I believe u joints are 1350 not sure on ball and pin kit, I would use non greaseable Spicer joints as they are stronger and don't need the maintenance unlike greaseable they tend to lose grease and let water in and make a mess. Make sure you get a new strap kit and clean yoke really good, where caps sit in and I even took a file and lightly went over the yoke surface where straps bolt on. Also if you do it yourself clean all the groves for snap rings so when you assemble it back and smak joints towards clips it doesn't bind. Hard to explain but you'll figure it out. Sometimes it works out great and other times I had to take it in to balance. 

Mark everything so it goes back same way.

Edited January 22, 2018 by Dieselfuture

[Mopar1973Man]

Kind of like I use only greaseable because of the fact of the short lifespan non-greaseable have. I get roughly 100-150k miles from greaseable u-joints. Non-greaseable u-joints I get only 20-40k from them. Being every 7k miles with my oil change I push the old grease out and new grease in. So far with all my offroad adventures and trailer towing I've NEVER broke a greaseable u-joint. With all the corrosive stuff on the highways is good to do this offen. Heck, I've got close to 100k miles on this set of u-joints.  

[crf450ish]

23 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

I believe u joints are 1350 not sure on ball and pin kit, I would use non greaseable Spicer joints as they are stronger and don't need the maintenance unlike greaseable they tend to lose grease and let water in and make a mess. Make sure you get a new strap kit and clean yoke really good, where caps sit in and I even took a file and lightly went over the yoke surface where straps bolt on. Also if you do it yourself clean all the groves for snap rings so when you assemble it back and smak joints towards clips it doesn't bind. Hard to explain but you'll figure it out. Sometimes it works out great and other times I had to take it in to balance. 

Mark everything so it goes back same way.

 

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Kind of like I use only greaseable because of the fact of the short lifespan non-greaseable have. I get roughly 100-150k miles from greaseable u-joints. Non-greaseable u-joints I get only 20-40k from them. Being every 7k miles with my oil change I push the old grease out and new grease in. So far with all my offroad adventures and trailer towing I've NEVER broke a greaseable u-joint. With all the corrosive stuff on the highways is good to do this offen. Heck, I've got close to 100k miles on this set of u-joints.  

So what’s the consensus here? Are they 1350? And i always use greasable joints. I think non geeasable joints are the stupidest thing in the world. Might as well not grease your tie rod ends and ball joints for that matter..... LOL! I took the driveline off and am going to order the u joints and centering yoke and drop it all off at a driveline shop here in fife, wa in western wa. I’m over here for work anyways. I don’t work on U joints. Tried to one time and ended up having to buy a new driveline, back in my jeeping days. So I leave the U Joint replacements to the experienced dudes who’ve done it a time or 20

[Dieselfuture]

A good quality non greaseable joints like Spicer has very good seals that don't let grease out and water in. They usually last over 100k, but if you want to grease yours at least every 10k or if you've been through water or even power washed it where high pressure water can get behind seals then get greaseable ones. If you look at the difference yourself when you're at the shop you'll know. Ether one will work fine imo, it was just a recommendation to go with non greaseable if you mostly stay on roads, sure off road you're probably better of with greaseable. Shop better know what size of joints to put in, but going of my memory front should be 1350, and rear 1410 which is only wider and not bigger, caps are same size. Next time I'm going to be working on my rear drive shaft I will have them built me one from aluminum tube with 1480 and a new yokes. Front not sure yet.

[dripley]

I am still on my oe drive shaft u joints. Non greasable and 433k miles. Swapped my front ones out about 30k ago. I have 3 old new stock non greasable for the drive shaft this summer. My non greasable oe tie rod ends on the front lasted 240k before replacement. I am non greasable all the way as long as i could be assured of the quality of what came on the truck. Not sure how to find that however. 

[Dieselfuture]

56 minutes ago, dripley said:

I am still on my oe drive shaft u joints. Non greasable and 433k miles.

I think it's safe to say you got every penny out of them. But I believe it's time for you to change them out to be on a safe side. 

[dripley]

11 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

I think it's safe to say you got every penny out of them. But I believe it's time for you to change them out to be on a safe side. 

I would agree. I checked them about 3 months and they were still tight and I have no vibration while driving.

[Dieselfuture]

1 hour ago, dripley said:

I would agree. I checked them about 3 months and they were still tight and I have no vibration while driving.

Make sure that it's in neutral so shaft is free when you're checking for play. And remember to block the wheels. Or I guess yours is a stick just put parking brake on, man having hard time believing at that milage they are still tight.

Have you ever changed seal and/or bushing in tail housing of transfer case where shaft slides in. Mine is wet but not bad drips once in a while, and I've changed seal before it didn't seem to help, so I'm thinking it may be bushing or my drive shaft has some vibration that I can't feel but it's causing a leak. Wasn't sure how common for these bushings to wear out, I would think it should last at least 300k. Funny thing is it started leaking after I did my u joints, with in few weeks. So I changed the seal and still not fixed, that's why I'm having doughts that drive shaft has something to do with it. I took it back and watched them balance it, it looked good as far as I could tell, he even heated it up few times and worped it just right to take more weights off of it. And this is someone that does it every day for the past 20 some years maybe longer, that's all he does is drive shafts mainly for big rigs and agricultural but he has a lot of car/truck guys that go to him. I would hope he knows his stuff.

[crf450ish]

Spicer 5-213X is the part # for my front driveshaft U joints. 1330 series. 

[crf450ish]

Looks like my ball joints are on there way out. After jacking up the front end and placing it on jack stands and inspecting the steering for wear and loose parts, I discovered the ball joints are worn which I expected @ 145K Miles. Now I’ve heard greT things about those Carli ball joints but cannot justify the price. Anything better than OEM spicer ball joints? Moog?  I had good luck with moog ball joints on the Dana 44 in my wrangler years ago. What are your guys’ opinions? 

[Haggar]

From my experience, Moog is not what it used to be.  YMMV.

 

During your inspection, remember one of our ball joints is more like a king pin.  It can have some vertical movement (no radial movement) and not be bad.  (I think it is the lower, but I don't remember.)

 

Good luck!

 

Hag

[Dieselfuture]

Mine have about 16th to 1/8 up and down but no side to side, I'm almost at 160k on the original ones. I already got a set of Spicer's to go in when I feel the need

[dripley]

I changed my oe's out at 240k. They were pretty worn. Replaced with MOOG at the time and they now have close to 200k on them. I do have a little up and down play in them but no side to side. From what I read about all of the replacements is the upper will have vertical play. Federal Mogul took over Moog not long after I bought mine and that might be the difference. Looking for replacements myself. The carli and other high priced replacements will not be my choice because they do not offer any better warranty than the low cost one's that I have seen. Of course I have not looked in a while either. If I find some new old stock of the oe's I would buy them in heart beat. Just my opinion.

[crf450ish]

Well that explains the tad bit of shininess I seen when the front end was suspended. I do feel a little clunking every now and again coming from the front end and up thru the steering column. I just was to stay ontop of each and every little issue that pops up so my truck stays in mint operating condition all the time. It’s always the little things to me that make the biggest difference. 

 

On another note.... I CANNOT find anyone to change out my U joints on my front driveshaft. All the places I’ve called and shops I’ve stopped in say they won’t touch the double cardan portion. What the heck?  I would do it myself  however I do not feel comfortable fooling around with the double cardan portion. Can anyone offer an opinion as to why a freekin shop (that I’ve dealt with before and like) won’t touch it? Liability?!?!?  

[Mopar1973Man]

2 minutes ago, crf450ish said:

On another note.... I CANNOT find anyone to change out my U joints on my front driveshaft. All the places I’ve called and shops I’ve stopped in say they won’t touch the double cardan portion. What the heck?  I would do it myself  however I do not feel comfortable fooling around with the double cardan portion. Can anyone offer an opinion as to why a freekin shop (that I’ve dealt with before and like) won’t touch it? Liability?!?!? 

 

I've got an article on it. Super simple and not long to do. Just need a impact gun and ball joint press slide the bearing cap right out quick!

[crf450ish]

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

I've got an article on it. Super simple and not long to do. Just need a impact gun and ball joint press slide the bearing cap right out quick!

Jeez! Lol I didn’t know that was there. I need to spend some time and actually go through your articles and bookmark the ones I need to read up on. Thank you!

[crf450ish]

The other day my TC started unlocking and locking. Dirty AC noise...... @Dynamic suggested a quick n dirty way to detect if the the alternator is at fault and it was. I unplugged it and drove the truck. Problem solved. Now here’s the good part..... I had to argue with the retards behind the counter at autozone who think they know more than me about why my TC was doing what it did. Their silly test machine doesn’t detect the issue that causes the dirty AC noise. In the end I got it swapped out. I’m saving up for one those nice expensive alternators. Hopefully that’ll cure the issue for good! I also cleaned the **** out of my battery terminals 

[Mopar1973Man]

We've got a heck of a thread going attempting to resolve the whole alternator AC noise issue for good. The best I can tell you that the grid heater are the cause of the diodes failing as for solution for keeping the diodes from getting damaged is still not found yet. We are working for a long-term solution. I'm still of the opinion that the grid heaters as the age and the solenoids that control them tend to create more load than the alternator can handle so the diodes overheat and fail.