birfield joints? 4x4 question.
Thread Starter
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Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,980
Likes: 2
From: central ohio
birfield joints? 4x4 question.
i was reading in one of my off-road magazines today about a conversion for toyota pickups that replaces the front axleshaft birfield joints (basicly a c.v. joint like in a escort) with a conventional u-joint setup. i wonder if they make a kit to go the other way and exchange my steering universals (which are both shot) for a c.v. type setup. i dont run larger than stock tires or do any hard-core 4-wheeling, mainly just use 4 wheel for snow or 4 low to pull out of the boat ramp and spare the clutch a little lining. seems like c.v. would be better for my purposes and not have that u-joint binding you get in a tight turn when in 4wd. any thoughts/ideas out there? i definitly need to do something with my front axle before winter comes, i checked out my steering u-joints out of curiosity and found the right side is getting sloppy and the left side has a lot of slop-like one of the cups is missing all the rollers. and about the hub socket tool. is this something i have to get thru ford or snap-on? hate to not be able to use 4wd, but as bad as my u-joints seem, i think it would really tear someting up if it came apart. (exspecially at speed in 4 high) thanks all. Dave. 
Thread Starter
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Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,980
Likes: 2
From: central ohio
ve also heard of a real heavy-duty replacement u-joint i think is called ox-joint. instead of roller bearing needles, it uses striaght bronze bushings. 130 bucks (a peice, i think) id almost be willing to go that route if they would last the life of the truck, but then again, if the weak link becomes the strong point then what is the next weakest thing to go. hubs if lucky, if not lucky, maybe twist or break a axleshaft-owwch. i saw the ox-joint in another magazine, but i must have tossed it out. been scouring the internet and looking through other magazines to try and find out more. may just end up putting stock u-joints back in, that alone will probapbly be difficult enough. only have 74,000 miles on truck, but looks like the undercarrage has seen lots of salt, truck was originally from colorado.
