I've had some noise coming from the back for a couple weeks now. It appears to be a u-joint near the front of the driveshaft. There appears to be two u-joints at the front though. Is one of the integrated into the slip-yoke? I hope not because I don't want to pay for a new slip-yoke too.

 

No replies at all?

Anyway, I talked to the dealer about getting some new u-joints. It looks like I need to get some numbers off the current ones. They said something about different cup diameters or something like that.

 

Good Morning,

These joints are an easy install - press out and in. What you need is Neapco #2-4800 (should run about $15.00 each). Watch out for low quality joints from some part stores.

Hope this helps.....

Thanks & Have a Great Day,

Arlene - PST, Inc.

 

I took a closer look while trying to take the driveshft off today. It doesn't look like the u-joints are bad. I took some pics.

The arrows are pointing to the two pieces that almost connect to each other through a rubber seal of some sort.



Here you can see what I'm talking about.



I've never dealt with a double cardan u-joint before so I'm not sure what's going on here.

It also looks like corrosion took a toll on the slip yoke. I circled the two sopts that are heavily corroded. It might be hard to see the cirles though.



Here is a close up of one spot.



Should I be worried about the rubber piece?

 

I talked to the dealer parts department again. This time I took some pictures with me. They said the eye cup or something like that is bad. That is the FUBAR part you see in the second picture. They basically laughed and said good luck finding parts though.

There aren't any other problesm right now. It just makes some noise. Is anything bad going to happen if it doesn't get repaired? They also said it would be easier to get a new driveshaft since parts will be hard to get. I'll probably go that route if this thing is bound to fail in the future.

 

That looks pretty bad. I would replace it. I had my driveshaft come off once (my old Fury) and it scared the crap out of me. Lucky for me it was the back end at the diff but if the front lets loose it could flip your truck over.

I am surprised that Ford does not have these available still. You could try to find a good one at the wreckers but if your wreckers are like the ones here all they have is a bunch of "shells" left with no usable parts on them. A driveline shop is probably your best bet.

 

I might go for an aftermarket driveshaft. Is it possible to find an aluminum one for $350 or less?

 

I took the shaft comepletely out today to take measurements. Is there anybody willing to verify some stuff for me? I counted the splines on the t-case multiple times. I counted 31 but I would like to make sure that is correct. It is an electric shift BW4406.

I also need to verify the distance between bolt holes on the differential as shown here.



It looks like the distance is somewhere between 4 1/4 and 4 5/16.