Oh yea, your retainers that hold on the d shaft boot.... their called swedge clamps. I dont know of any auto parts stores that sell them in bulk where you could just pick a size out. I have never tried to get them from ford and have my doubts on availability being i though those rear shafts were sold complete. If you need to grab some i would suggesting trying to find a local d shaft shop or a cv axle reman house. I'm sure they could supply you with the sizeing you need.

 

If the u-joint is not too far gone it WILL "thud" when going over bumps. The "play in your joint may be adding to the bumping noise. You know when you have reached the point beyond no return when the squeek/groan noise can be heard. That's when the needle bearings have turned to powder. I had this smae EXACT thing happen to me. Thud over bumps later turned to squeeking/groaning and final result..powder bearings. Do yourself a favor and get high quality greasable u-joints.

Oh...by the way it is normal to have that 1/8" play in the shaft.

 

Ok, then I will probably replace the u-joint since it is going bad anyways and I will grease the slip-joint at the same time, while the driveshaft is off the truck, and hopefully it will solve the cluncking problem. I have noticed that now it has been colder out, the clunking has gotten more pronounced and a bit louder. Would it be best to replace all the u-joints on the driveshaft, since one is going bad, or is it alright to replace just one at a time if the others check out? Also, should the driveshaft be balanced after a u-joint is replaced or doesn't it matter? The current u-joints that are on the Bronco now are greasable, but I don't know how often my dad greased them, and then it sat for almost a year before I finally got it.

 

1) My as well replace all the driveshaft u-joints at the same time, since your under there...have you ever replaced u-joints before? If not do a search, I think someone has done a write up.
2) Drive shaft should not need rebalancing...unless you damage it while replacing u-joints. I've done mine a few times and never have had problems.
3) Good chance that it is definately your u-joints if it sat for a long period of time without greasing.

 

just FYI..those clamps that hold on the boot covering the slip joint are availible from NAPA-but you need to buy a special tool to tighten them.

 

I have been gone for awhile (deer hunting), so I have not been able to work on the Bronco. Now that it has gotten into the teens for temperature in the morning and the clunking has become a lot louder, and on some bumps, the clunking has turned into a popping and sounds like something is binding up and it's going to grenade itself. The popping is just like if you try and turn while in 4wheel on the pavement, only its not as loud. So I went back under the truck and poked around on the driveshaft some more, and I noticed the slip joint has pretty much play in, rotating it back and forth. Could this be causing the now popping noise when hitting bumps? I thought it only made noise when the grease was dried up, but the slip joint had lots of grease, and I greased it more to see if that would help, but it didn't. I'm still skeptical (sp?) if it's the u-joint, since most of the play I saw was because of the slip-joint and I didn't even notice it, and there is no clunking noise when coming to a stop or accelerating from a stop. If it is the slip joint, could I keep driving the Bronco like it is, until I can get a new driveshaft, or will I wreck something else by doing so?
Sorry for the long post, and thanks for all the help so far.

 

I went through a lot of strange noise from my rear driveshaft, mostly screeching/squealing at low speeds. The U-joints were fine, but the centering joint in the double cardan was dry and worn out. I messed with it a little but that was a pain, you must need some special tools.

I bought a complete new driveshaft from here:

http://www.dicksdriveshaft.com/partsdeptbronco.htm

 

I dont know if this will help or not but I'm going thru a similiar situation. I just replaced my Rad-arm with poly bushings about 2 months ago. I hear a loud pop only when I do a hard left-hand turn. It sounds like somethings binding and then releasing. I know it has to do with the rad-arms, I can feel the pop under the driver floor board. Visually the the bushings look great, my Bronc is a 96 with only 40,000 and has been taken care of. It never did this before I changed them out. You might want to start there.

 

I'm pretty sure that the noise isn't coming from the front end, and I replaced the radius arm bushings about 5 months ago with poly ones. The noise sounds like something in the drivetrain binding up. On days when it's warm, like 60 degrees and up, you can hardly hear any noises from the rear end, but when it gets cold, like under 15, the rear end sounds like its going to rip itself apart when going over bumps. One morning when it was real cold, I could feel it in the truck when I heard the noise. Does this sound like a worn slip-joint in the driveshaft could be making the noise, or u-joint, or something else?

 

How about the leaf spring mounts? I believe that there is some sort of bushing in there.

 

My pop sound is coming from the rear but when I hear it I also can feel it thru the driver floor board. So somethings moving under the pedals but the sound is directing towards the rear ? Weird I'm taking it in this weekend so well see.

 

I never really thought of the leaf spring bushings, but I looked at mine and none of them are like completely destoryed, one of them is cracking, but that's about it. iagainsti, sometimes the sound is hard to tell where it is coming from, although most of the time it sounds like the rear. Everything looks good underneith the truck, except for the play in the slip-joint, so I don't know where the sound is comming from. Let me know if you find anything when you take your Bronco in.