I'm a 4Runner newbie; Recently bought a '98 Limited 4wd for my son. Only on the interstate ride home did I notice that what I initially thought was a tire(s) out of balance appeared to be something different.

After reading a little on here, it appears that the vibration/noise above 45mph or so (perfectly smooth when off the gas) might be the result of a bad U-joint.

I crawled under yesterday, and found a great deal of play in the U-joint at the rear differential. Question; I also read on here about a slip-joint driveshaft. Am I correct in understanding that I can take the 4 bolts loose where the shaft connects to the rear end, and then simply slip that end of the shaft out of the rest of the drive shaft?? Does it just slide out?

And then to put it back together, it just slides back in? (I am aware that I need to mark all of those pieces so that they all go back in-line as they were before removal.)

Is it that easy? LOL!


Thanks in advance!

Your driveshaft has the slip joint in the middle. If you unbolt just the rear and pull it out of the slip section, make matchmarks first so you know how it lines up.

Better to unbolt the shaft at both ends, you'll want to get it balanced after replacing the joint anyway.

It looks like the joint is only about 8-10" (going from memory) up front the rear diff end. Am I looking at the correct place?

The pics in this thread is what I see under there - that's where it slips apart, correct?

Why is my drive shaft moving?

Yessir, that's the slip joint.

Thanks!

Huh? A rebalance is never necessary just from ujoint replacement.

Balancing is for the shaft itself and many times it is done without the ujoints installed to begin with.

I worked in a driveshaft shop in college and we never rebalanced just for ujoint swaps. The shaft itself is what is being balanced and ujoints have zero effect on it.

I agree that both ends should be taken down (less work actually).

Good to know. Last time I did a u joint I ended up needing a balance afterwords. Maybe I needed a balance before and didn't notice.

Well, we got it done...... What a pain in the butt!! LOL! I ended up enlisting the help of an old friend who has access to more tools than anyone I know. We ended up cutting the dang joint out with a cutoff wheel. Only one of the caps would drive or press all the way out. That had to be the original 225k mi-old unit. (Oh, and that bit of skin between your thumb and index finger - when you hit that with a hammer, it HURTS! )

Anyway, it's done. I regreased the splines real good before slipping the shaft back together. All is back together and the noise/vibration/rumble is gone!


Thanks guys!