Guys,


I have a 2006 F250 6.0L that I need to remove the drive shaft on. The truck has a two piece unit, I feel a kick my *** when im stopped and barely let it move forward or take off. I checked and my carrier bearing bushing is wasted. I can move the shaft up/down .5" or more. Since I have to pull the drive shaft anyhow to have a DS press off/on a new carrier bearing I figured having them do the u-joints and rebalance it as well.


Do I need to worry about indexing or marking the position of everything since it's being rebalanced ? I can't afford 1K from Ford to do it so I am venturing off into uncharted territory for myself. This is the first time I have ever tried this so any pointers would be great. If I am barking up the wrong pole let me know as well.


Thanks


Tim

 

67 views no comments or suggestions?

 

You do need to mark the position of the driveshaft so it can be re-installed the same way it came out. If you are going to have a Driveshaft shop do the rest of the work for you, why not let them remove and re-install? How much more could that add? Shouldn't be much more to have them do it.

And, make sure they lube the Slip-Joint with Motocraft XG-8

 

I am just trying to keep the costs down and if I can handle it I was going to attempt it. J.E Reel in Pomona quoted me between 350-400 dollars (replace all the u-joints, carrier bearing, paint, re-balance of the 2 peice shaft). If it's going to take me 1-2hrs to pull/install the unit and I don't have all the lifts, air ratchets, tools etc. how long does the dealer take? I can't see them taking 5hrs to do that. They (Ford) quoted me between 800-1000 which seems excess considering.

I might have the drive line shop do it all too you bring up a good point.

 

If all goes well, you can pull it yourself in about 10 min

 

I paid a friend, to R&R mine.
The driveshaft shop installed Spicer Life u-joints and a center bearing, for $178.
Ford wanted $600, for parts and labor.

 

I did the entire job of replacing the carrier bearing and u joints in my garage. The whole process is not difficult. A few basic tools and patience will save you a ton of money.

 

You do not need to mark alignment. Just remember that the caps facing outward from each drive shaft must be aligned.



Each shaft is individually balanced, and if you put the splines back together correctly, the shafts can only be in one of two positions relative to each other. I don't think these do, but in years past a master spline was used to make misalignment impossible.



Alignment on the transmission does not matter, nor does alignment on the differential. There are only either two or four ways to align these flanges... either or all are correct.

If you really want to get down to it, an odd number of u-joints can never result in a constant velocity on the output with a constant velocity from the input. Since the u-joints on the rear shaft are always in the correct alignment (assuming the shaft was welded correctly) the splines can go together in any way, as this is technically a new input. To make it a proper constant velocity shaft, there needs to be a double u-joint type CV joint at the front yoke.



That would make the front drive shaft a constant velocity no matter what the alignment is to the transmission, and the rear shaft is always in phase with itself. In the following image, the shaft only stays in phase if there is no change in angle of the front yoke. This is also an incorrect design as u-joints should always be designed with some bend to allow the needle bearings to move. Otherwise they wear out quicker.

 

PS

Get into the habit of only marking parts that are a matched set. Examples are connecting rod caps, valve placement in heads, piston numbers... These are things that are cut specifically to work together.

In every other case it is best to always assume that whoever put it together last time was either an idiot or just having a bad day... even if it was yourself. This prevents you from doing something wrong twice or perpetuating sloppy work. In these cases, treat the refurbished parts as new and put them together like they've never been in the same zip code before.