Hello again all, as you may have heard we got quite a bit of snow in the NE yesterday and I finally got around to needing 4x4. Well the problem is that my front drive shaft u-joints are shot (the double cardan cv especially). Lots of slop and clunking, luckily got home in 2wd

What is everyones opinion (I probably already know lol) on aftermarket parts. I know a lot of things are OEM only by recomendation (t-stat, glowplugs, etc) but would napa u joints hold up for an occasional use work truck?

OEM parts through our dealer network at my price is @ $120 total for the front 3 vs about $14/each for napa stuff.

If that was the only issue I had I'd probably just foot the bill but now that I've added another IDI to the line up I need to take care of some maintenance items on that as well

 

Get the spicers from NAPA

 

Are they boxed spicer or is it something I have to pull out and inspect? I have to check and see what I have because apparently theres an internal/external clip difference and they're either 1-1/8' or 1-1/16" bearings

 

IIRC theyre boxed spicer, havent had to buy a u-joint for a while... knock on wood.

 

Thank you sir, thinking about pulling the front shaft tonight and doing a parts run tomorrow, thank God I can do my own work

 

Thats the reason i became a mechanic, and learned body work... that stuff is way too expensive to pay someone else to do.

 

My experience is that NAPA gets Spicer u-joints from a local Spicer dealer and that they are not a Spicer dealer themselves. My local CarQuest carries Spicer joints, but I think that's up to each individual store if they want to carry something other than their normal store brands. I haven't priced any joints from them so I don't know how they are on the price. I get Spicer parts from Inland Truck Parts. You may check them out or another heavy truck parts dealer. My local machine shop carries both Spicer and Neapco joints, and they tell me that they are equal or better than the Spicer u-joints, but I have yet to try them.
Driveline System and Parts for OEM & Aftermarket | Neapco.

 

whenever dealing with aftermarket parts, go the smart route and you will be fine.
napa has 2 quality of parts. they have the cheap crap for people that just want to fix it and sell it and for cheap people.
then they have the premium line for people that do it once and are done.
the price difference of the premium parts is nothing when you consider the part will last damn near forever.
i see people cheap out all the time and have to replace u-joints every year.
i put premium joints in my 88 15 years and close to 300,000 miles ago.

 

Thank you gents,

My local napa did not have spicer joints, only napa brand. I'm going to give them a shot, hopefully I got the correct ones. Should be able to get them in this week after the snow melts a little

 

I HIGHLY recommend you stick with spicer. You WILL regret it. I did the u-joint run around for years on my jeeps and my 79f150. You want spicers. I promise you.

 

X2, 3, 4, 5 and so on... Always use Spicer u joints, and Timpkin Bearings and seals. the rest are more or less junk.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm not even sure I got the right parts yet honestly lol, just pulled out numbers out of the catalog. My luck they will be incorrect. Truck is parked in 2 foot of snow and I wasn't laying under there to pull the driveshaft, I'll do it in the nice warm shop

If they fit I'm going to run them, if not I'm going to measure the old ones and probably just get spicer units offline since they really aren't any more expensive. Just need to see which ones I need. Every catalog list multiple options so until they're measured I'm just shooting in the dark

 

napa premium universal joints are made by spicer.

 

I used to get all my joints at NAPA but some years ago they gave me made in Japan joints and said that was all they could get anymore, packaged same as previous made in USA joints I had bought. No more NAPA joints for me, if I need them quick I get NEAPCO from Advance (sadly some are now foreign made, but some are USA, check packaging) or will order from Summit.

 

that is your store refusing to by the better parts for you. the cheapo joints are china or japan, the premium joints are spicer.

i just replaced all 4 u-joints in a 96 F-150 last month with napa premium u-joints made by spicer. my napa store will not stock the cheap parts, 99.99% of their business is from garages that only uses the best parts.
now on the other side of the coin, the new napa store 1/2 mile up the road stocks cheap crap parts and sells 99.99% to off the street idiots that will not spend the extra money for the good parts.