Hey guys. I have a 90 EB with a 351. About a month ago it started shaking when I would drive between 45 and 65 Mph and it would stop if I let off the pedal. It progressively got worse and I finally decided to find out what the deal was. It turns out that my rear driveshaft had bad U joints and center bearing between the two front u joints. I have made some phone calls to see what it would cost me to get the driveshaft repaired and it seems that $225 is about the average. I have done u joints before and they are really easy. It is that center bearing that scares me. If I am going to spend $80 for a replacement kit I don't want to mess it up and I have never done one before. Any advice on this procedure would be helpful as I plan on tackling this by the end of next week. I have the driveshaft out and the back u joint out. I plan on taking the two other joints out this afternoon but am skeptical as to what is under that rubber seal in between. I heard that can be tricky. Help!

Kevin
:-X11

 

OK,
I just climbed out from under my 95, replacing all 3 univeral joints. the rear one is a breaze with the write tools. but doing the (knuckle) one is a pain. Under the ball, pivit area is a small round ball type joint. and inside it is a bunch of small barrings just like the ones in the universal joint end caps, (but there not the same size) also us a spring in the other side of it on the end of the shaft in. be careful removing the joint. i was using a very large "c" clamp with a large whole at one end, specially made for removing u joints. what you can do is push out the caps but be gental, and you can twist the joint out. but if you do pull it nuckle apart, some small picks tools and you can put all those little barrings back in place. and the same goes for replacing the joint. just make sure you have the two peaces of the knuckle together correctly or it want seat properly, and you can and will break some of the small bearings, like i did. i hope this helps alittle. but its not too hard.
but replacing wasnt the cause of my problems it seams theres more wrong it mine. i think its ether the rear end or the transfer case. see post for more details.

sorry for the miss spealing.

 

I couldn't follow a lot of hipropos' reply, but he's on the right track. You CAN do it, just take your time and prepare to be frustrated (first one took me 5 hours, but I'm dumber than most - second one took me 15 min). A HELPER IS NEARLY REQUIRED FOR REASSEMLY, IMO.
You'll get it apart fine, you have to remove the center-most joint first IIRC, then the forward most. Install is exact reverse of tear-down.
IME, the trick is this: when you are reassembling the last joint, which would be the inner-most one, you must keep that ujoint in place with NO caps installed, this will allow you to drop the spring and centering pin into the ball with needle bearings without knocking any of the needles out of place. You will know if the needles are ok by feel; it should freely slide up and down. If you get this far you're golden and can then install all 4 ujoint caps for that last joint----------THIS IS WHERE A HELPER IS CRITICAL. Until you have all the caps installed, if you allow that shaft to flop around or move much at all, the pin/spring will come out of the ball and you gotta start all over.
You can do it w/the shaft laying on it's side but I've had FAR better results w/my gf helping, holding the shaft (huh, huh) vertical (double cardan DOWN, slip joint UP) while I install the ujoint caps. Also, while it's vertical it gives you a better chance to feel if the centering pin moves freely; compress it and it should almost spring back up (grease will create some suction) on it's own or with a little help.
Keep in mind NONE of this will make sense until you're actually in there, so print any good replies you get and take them to the workbench w/you. I may have to do mine soon again as I think it's humming, and I'll definitely do a tech page if so. This is an FAQ and pics would be worth more than a thousand words.

 

OK, I rebuilt the driveshafts both front and rear and paid to have them balanced (ouch). I still have a mild shaking both front and back shafts. It is worse at lower speeds than higher. After about 55 it gets better. After the first test run I disconnected both shafts and turned them 180 degrees at the transmission. It got a little better. When I put the truck in park I can turn the driveshaft about a 1/4 turn. Is my transfer case in for a rebuild? I can also feel a little bit of play in the front driveshaft where it goes into the transfer case, normal? I am not going to take this thing to a shop, first of all I can't afford it and second I can do it myself. I am pretty frustrated, HELP!

Kevin

 

>OK, I rebuilt the driveshafts both front and rear and paid
>to have them balanced (ouch). I still have a mild shaking
>both front and back shafts.

How do you know this? I'd pull the rear and go cruise around in FWD, see if that changes anything. If so, you can then isolate the problem to the rear end. You can also do the opposite and maybe isolate it to the front end but I doubt it 'cause you normally drive around in RWD. As for turning the d/s when parked, that's probably normal, and if it's excessive I'd expect excessive backlash from the r+p rather than t-case. ???
Oh, and to clarify, do you have mild shaking or just a humming noise?

 

I am not sure if both of them are shuddering. I have driven in 4wd and it is hard to tell which one is vibrating when both are turning. I am going to pull them each separately and see which one is suspect. If I accidentally dropped one of those pins out of the centering kit would that cause the whole driveshaft to shudder? I think all of the pins made it through the install but it is possible. Plus I talked to the guy who balanced them today and he said they balanced just fine. But when I put them back on the truck last night, still shuddering. Could the spline inside the driveshaft be bad? The truck has 144K on it and I don't know if there has been any driveline work before I bought it. If I pull the rear driveshaft and I drive on FWD is that going to cause any problems in the long run? I am only using the truck to get back and forth to work right now and am dealing with the shuddering for now. Is that going to cause it to get worse? This is really ticking me off! HELP?

Kevin

 

I replaced the front part of the double cardan joint with the ball and bearings and spring. I reassembled the drive shaft and all is well. Thanks for the replies.
KJ

 

 

Hey all, I too am having drive shaft problems. My rear drive shaft fell out on me the other day while I was driving. It broke at the front of the rear driveshaft. Right after the first universal from the transfer case, right at the centering yoke. Not a pretty sight Anyway, I removed the rear driveshaft, put in 4 wheel drive and crawled home. I went out and picked up 3 three universal joints and only installed the rear two most ones.The repair manual calls it a Double Cardan Type Universal Joint. The one closest to the the transfer case was held in by some crazy 12 point flange bolts that I don't have the proper tools to remove at this time. Anyway, I put these two in and noticed that the little ball cup in the center of the centering yoke had gotten a little damaged as well. I smoothed that out though. Not the actual ball but the "seal" I guess it is. Anway, looking thru this Haynes repair manual it shows that there are some springs in there. Well, If mine had them, they are on the side of the road somewhere. I asked about a repair kit of this at all the local parts stores and no one carried anything like it. Needless to say, I put it back together and went for a drive. I still had some strange noises and vibrations that were not there before hand.I also noticed that the drive shaft was hot towards the area where it broke at the first time. In this book it says that there is a repair kit of this....Does anyone know where I can pick this up at? Or how much it is? All I've seen online so far is the price for a new driveshaft. Don't want that...just fix the one I got. Also, this book says to mark the yokes in relation to the matching universals so that they are installed the same way they came out. Now, in my case I wasn't able to do that....How do I go about making sure that isn't a problem?Hope I didn't forget anything....other than it's a 1982 Ford Bronco with a 302 in it. Any and all help and info would be greatly appericated. Thanx's a mill!!!!
Ted

 

>The one closest to the the transfer case was held in by some
>crazy 12 point flange bolts that I don't have the proper
>tools to remove at this time.

It's just a 12pt 12mm

>Anway, looking thru this Haynes repair manual
>it shows that there are some springs in there.

There is a spring in there.

>In this book it says that there is a repair kit of this....Does
>anyone know where I can pick this up at? Or how much it is?

Well, Napa carries the centering ball, now that I think about it there WAS a spring w/their kit, I THINK. Here's Napa's kit, it should be under $30:

http://www.superford.org/registry/users/33/139/DCP_0606.JPG

 

>Well, Napa carries the centering ball, now that I think
>about it there WAS a spring w/their kit, I THINK. Here's
>Napa's kit, it should be under $30:


I just did mine two weeks ago, and there is a spring included. I believe it cost me $22 at the NAPA here locally. However, I couldn't find the proper seal here locally (since the one in the NAPA kit does not fit), so I had to reuse my old seal.