Can't search the forum right now, so could anyone tell me how to remove and replace the front "U" joints or direct me to a thread that covers it?
Thanks all

 

the front axle u-joint at the steering knuckles arent too bad to deal with, they just take a little time. 1)remove tire assy, brake caliper assy and locking hub. remove c-clip from end of axle shaft. 2) if manual hub rmove locknuts and rotor from spindle, if auto hubs there is a key that is betwwen spindle and single nut, slide cam assy off nut and using a small screwdriver with a magnet on it, pull out key, may have to slightly move spindle nut back and forth. then slide off rotor assy. 3) remove nuts holding spindle to sterring knuckle, think there are 6, 13mm pull off spindle, may be very hard to get off, was the worst part of the whole job for me, i litterly beat the hell out of the spindle back and forth with a shot hammer (also called a dead-blow hammer) 4) slide out axle assy, on r.h. side there is a boot with steel clamps, cut the clamps, you'll use ty-straps to reassemble, the shaft on this side is a slip-joint (like the rear driveshaft) be sure to grease splines on re-assy. if you need a new u-joint on the r.h. axleshaft before the slip-yoke , it gets much worse, you have to pull the diff assy from the l.h. ttb to remove a c-clip inside the diff, hopefully you dont need to change that one. u-joints themselves are like any other, press or hammer out the old ones and put in new. on re-assy, dont forget to put anti-seize on the spidles where they meet up with the steering knuckle, new grease seals and grease wheel bearings, on auto hubs, the cam assy can be difficult to put back on spindle nut, dont forget the locking key. i did mine about 2 months ago, took me most of a afternoon. parts themselves werent bad, 15 apiece for u-joints, 5 or 7 for grease seals, 15 for a shot-hammer. good luck! Dave.

 

Thank you for the reply. The shop mechanic that does some of my work told me I will need to replace the lowers prior to next inspection. That's not till April so I have some time. They aren't a safety issue yet so I'm not too worried. I wanted to see if they were "over my head". Thanks !