This afternoon I will be removing the rear driveshaft from my truck to check ujoints and trying to find a vibration in my driveline. I have marked off all of the points on the driveshaft that need be marked and now I am ready to remove it. There are 4 starlike nuts where the driveshaft connects to the rear diff. When trying to unscrew these, they are obviously very tight and the driveshaft rotates then stops when I try to turn the wrench. The truck is in park, is it okay to the wrench against the gears in the transmission like this? It requires quite a bit of force. Also, are there any other words of advice that can be offered about removing the driveshaft?

-Chris

 

I don't think there would be any difference between wrenching against the park pawl and parking on an incline. The pressure shouldn't hurt the gear, I wouldn't think.

 

ill offer you advice, if it was anything like mine this is going to be a 12 pack of beer job because whoever took the shaft off before me over tightened the bolts when putting it back on and i snapped the bolts

 

Well I soaked the bolts in WD40 for over an hour (couldn't find my liquid wrench) and I still can't get them to budge with the 6 inch handle on my socket wrench. I'm sure that I could break it loose with my cheater bar but I just hate to put that much pressure on the tranny, can anyone confirm that I am going about this correctly? Just wrench the bolts as hard as I can until they break loose.

They also look as though they are right hand threaded as normal, but are these possibly one of the weird left handed threaded bolts?

-Chris

 

Can you get an impact wrench on them?? It may break the bolts, but they are bolts not studs right? You can replace bolts.

 

I thought about using the impact wrench but figured that would be more dangerous than wrenching it by hand. I tried slammin' the handle of my wrench with a heavy hammer a few times, wouldn't break loose. Can anyone confirm that an impact gun would be safe to use here?

-Chris

 

These are the 12-point, 12mm bolts, right? If so, they have threadlocking compound on them, so they will be difficult to remove. You won't damage them using an impact gun or by using a cheater pipe with a ratchet. In fact, I'd be more worried about breaking a ratchet or socket than anything on the truck. I use an impact gun on these all the time at the dealer I work at and never have any problems. In fact, I would recommend the use of an impact gun to make this job easier. Also, be sure to apply some threadlock (Loctite) on the bolt threads when going back together.

 

Thanks a lot, I got it off with the cheater bar. Driveshaft is now sitting next to my truck. I was going to try taking it for a spin in 4wd, essentially only in front wheel drive with the rear shaft removed, in an effort to try to isolate the vibration I'm having. But when I took the rear shaft off the t-case started to drip fluid, I turned the engine on and put it in drive, and it started spewing quite a bit of fluid when I gave it some gas. People have suggested driving my truck with the rear shaft removed but how could I possibly do this without spray fluid everywhere??

-Chris

 

I had to use a piece of pipe on my neighbors 99 F250. I couldn't get enough leverage laying on the ground under the truck with just the ratchet. And when I reinstalled it, I also used the pipe. Worked pretty well...didn't damage anything.

 

Thanks Carbone, thats what I ended up doing too, seemed to work out fine.

Anyone know how I am supposed to drive my truck in 4wd with the driveshaft removed without spewing fluid everywhere? Is this even possible? I've had several people recommend that I do this, as well as my Ford service manual saying it too.

-Chris

 

Not possible unless you plug that hole somehow. Old slip yoke? I had an old Blazer I could do this to, but it had a solid yoke in it.