Clunk and a ton of vibrating.

[Perrone]

I replaced my u joints over the weekend and everything was back to new it seemed. As my wife was driving to work this morning she said there was a loud clunking sound and the truck is vibrating like crazy. Before I replaced the u joints one of them was broken so the truck was vibrating pretty badly anyway at certain speeds, but she said it is a LOT worse than that and it's vibrating violently at any speed now. She was able to get it parked in a lot, but I'm trying to get an idea of what may be wrong before I beg a friend to drive me to it so I can check it out.

Any ideas?

(She said the driveshaft is still there so that's a good sign I guess)

EDIT 1: It isn't shaking if she isn't pressing on the gas or brake and idles just fine. I'm thinking that maybe one of the new u joints broke already or something.

EDIT 2: I'm really thinking one of those new u joints i put on broke or something. I'm trying to find someone cheap enough to tow it home so I can take a look since I can't find anyone to give me a ride. I really hope it's the u joints rather than something expensive.

 

[TechWrench]

I replaced my u joints over the weekend and everything was back to new it seemed. As my wife was driving to work this morning she said there was a loud clunking sound and the truck is vibrating like crazy. Before I replaced the u joints one of them was broken so the truck was vibrating pretty badly anyway at certain speeds, but she said it is a LOT worse than that and it's vibrating violently at any speed now. She was able to get it parked in a lot, but I'm trying to get an idea of what may be wrong before I beg a friend to drive me to it so I can check it out.

Any ideas?

(She said the driveshaft is still there so that's a good sign I guess)

EDIT 1: It isn't shaking if she isn't pressing on the gas or brake and idles just fine. I'm thinking that maybe one of the new u joints broke already or something.

It is possible that the one of the U-joint end caps isn't seated properly in the yoke, because of damage to the yoke, and this is causing the vibration. I would carefully check all the end caps on every u-joint replaced. Also check that all the retaining clips for the end caps are still in place.

 

[Perrone]

It is possible that the one of the U-joint end caps isn't seated properly in the yoke, because of damage to the yoke, and this is causing the vibration. I would carefully check all the end caps on every u-joint replaced. Also check that all the retaining clips for the end caps are still in place.

I was just thinking that maybe that one of the clips came off and I lost a cap or something. I'm having the truck towed here later today so I can look at it. If one of the u joints just isn't seated right or something I still don't understand what the clunk could have been except it breaking. She also said there was a grinding noise after it happened so I really think one of them broke and the sound was it grinding on the yoke.

Also, sorry if I seem all over the place. I spent the ENTIRE day sunday beating those old u joints out because of how rusted and old they were so I'm absolutely exhausted and now it's broke again so I'm about to lose my mind.

I'll let you know what I come up with.

 

[TechWrench]

I was just thinking that maybe that one of the clips came off and I lost a cap or something. I'm having the truck towed here later today so I can look at it. If one of the u joints just isn't seated right or something I still don't understand what the clunk could have been except it breaking. She also said there was a grinding noise after it happened so I really think one of them broke and the sound was it grinding on the yoke.

Also, sorry if I seem all over the place. I spent the ENTIRE day sunday beating those old u joints out because of how rusted and old they were so I'm absolutely exhausted and now it's broke again so I'm about to lose my mind.

I'll let you know what I come up with.

I don't recall if I ever changed u-joints on your vintage Toyota, so I am curious. Were the end caps held in place with clip type retainers, or did Toyota use the injected plastic resin? If they use the injected resin system to keep the end caps in place, and you haven't changed this type before, they can be very difficult to remove if you don't know the trick to make it much easier. I have done hundreds of u-joints over the years, and the injected type are the hardest, but with the heat trick, they become much easier.

 

[Perrone]

I don't recall if I ever changed u-joints on your vintage Toyota, so I am curious. Were the end caps held in place with clip type retainers, or did Toyota use the injected plastic resin? If they use the injected resin system to keep the end caps in place, and you haven't changed this type before, they can be very difficult to remove if you don't know the trick to make it much easier. I have done hundreds of u-joints over the years, and the injected type are the hardest, but with the heat trick, they become much easier.

They had clips on them. I'm not sure if they were the original u joints or not, but they sure were rusted on there pretty well. Even the bolts to get the drive shaft off in the first place were a huge pain. I used a LOT of wd-40 and let everything soak for a while and it made things a little easier.

 

[Perrone]

Well it's being towed shortly and my wife just said she got under and can see that the rear u joint is broken. I'm not sure what happened because both of them are brand new out of the box, but it's my luck I got a bad one.

One question though, I don't see anything anywhere that says it matters, but does it matter if I put the drive shaft back in EXACTLY how I took it out? I marked it with paint, but the wd-40 got rid of the mark so I honestly have no idea if I put it exactly right back in. I know the shaft and yokes themselves went on the way I took them off, but I'm not sure about the piece as a whole going back on the truck the same way. I would assume it would have made a noise or showed some sign of it being on wrong, but it didn't for almost a whole day until the u joint snapped.