Getting ready to do a 5speed swap. Since I got the drive shafts out of a donor truck , the zerks on the ujoints are missing and looks like they weren't maintained well. So I want to replace the UJOINTS on both drive shafts. How many total ujoints are there, 4 or 5? Ans are they all identical? A person at lowrange said that there is 4 ujoints and that the matsuba will replace only 3 out of 4 and that the other 4th he doesn't see on his computer and would need measurements. So I'm little confused. Exactly how many u joints are there and will matsuba fit in all ?
u joint question help
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Paperjam
New member
You can check u joints for play, as well as for binding. Just move them through their ranges and feel for a nice smooth movement. Install grease nipples and shoot a bit of grease in there first.
Check for signs of red rusty dust around te boots, that's a sign that they are dry inside
Replacing u joints suck, I've been a mechanic for 5 years, and I want to run from every u joint job that comes thru. I personally would send out the shafts to a driveline shop to have it done. It's cheap too.
Check for signs of red rusty dust around te boots, that's a sign that they are dry inside
Replacing u joints suck, I've been a mechanic for 5 years, and I want to run from every u joint job that comes thru. I personally would send out the shafts to a driveline shop to have it done. It's cheap too.
Depends highly on the shop, I just recently dealt with Indy Rack and Axle and boy what a waste of time. I was initially very pleased with the low price and fast turnaround time, but I got what I paid for. Cheap "Neapco" joint with the wrong style zerk that I couldn't access with my grease gun, and a terrible balance the manifested itself at all speeds over 55 mph as an awful buzzing/vibration, having them rebalance it yielded the same result. They had "straightened it" as well, which probably just means they actually bent it, since this was a stock driveshaft on a truck with 110k highway miles and no accidents. Ended up grabbing a junk yard shaft for $25 that atleast got me back to where I started (occasional minor vibrations going up hill under load), no driveline vibes at any other speeds. Got a refund for the straightening and balance, took that original shaft to a different shop where he took off the sloppily applied weights and redid the straightening and balance, have yet to try this newly balanced shaft.
Needless to say I'm a bit gun shy about recommending the driveline shop route unless I knew they had the equipment/fittings to balance Toyota shafts properly.
If the joints move smoothly without excess looseness, you might get away with replacing zerks and lubing everything back up. My junkyard shaft actually has a tiny bit of a tighter spot on the rearmost joint (that mounts to the rear diff), but the truck drives pretty darn good.
To answer your question, the front shaft has 2 traditional u joints on flanges, both easily replaced if necessary, but probably not a source of driveline issues on a daily basis (ie there is never significant torque on these in regular driving, not to mention little chance of high torque at high speeds). Rear shaft has a double cardan 'CV' that mounts to the t-case, there's been some talk about sourcing appropriate replacement u joints, but generally I think these are not problematic even on high mile unmaintained vehicles. Just add some fresh grease to both joints and the intermediate zerk in the middle of the double cardan. Rear-most joint is a regular, replaceable u-joint, and is in fact something that can wear and cause issues.
TL;DR: replace zerks and lube it up, check for obvious issues, particularly on the rearmost joint. You might be just fine!
So the only fancy u joint is the CV one ? The double cardan one ?
Yeah. It doesn't actually look like a fwd car's front axle CV joint or anything, that's just what some people call these double cardan joints.
JayRolla
New member
The ujoints can be swapped. The part he dont see is the double cardan joint or CV joint at the front of the driveshafts. This part does not have replaceable parts. If you research there is a couple guys that do it and they have to steal OEM parts from another toyota vehicle type to rebuild the double cardan. I ended up finding a low mileage junkyard donor. Ended up being best option. I was quoted about $200 to build shaft and have it sent out. If you bring it to a regular driveshaft shop they will put low quality joints that will fail in no time. Good luck.
If I simply want to replace just ujoints. Exactly.how many I need to buy ?
Matsuba Stock Replacement Toyota/Lexus Universal Joint (U-Joint)
And I assume zerks should line up
"To answer your question, the front shaft has 2 traditional u joints on flanges, both easily replaced if necessary, but probably not a source of driveline issues on a daily basis (ie there is never significant torque on these in regular driving, not to mention little chance of high torque at high speeds). Rear shaft has a double cardan 'CV' that mounts to the t-case, there's been some talk about sourcing appropriate replacement u joints, but generally I think these are not problematic even on high mile unmaintained vehicles. Just add some fresh grease to both joints and the intermediate zerk in the middle of the double cardan. Rear-most joint is a regular, replaceable u-joint, and is in fact something that can wear and cause issues."
Not sure how much more spoonfed it gets....
JayRolla
New member
My double cardan failed. 200k miles it started making noise. Replaced around 240k. They do fail. They get packed with mud and should be pressure washed.
I'm speaking of the repeated questions regarding the location of the u joints, it's been answered ad nauseum. To add insult to injury it takes just a few seconds to get under the truck and look.
