Removing drive shaft

[Rookie2]

So I'm going to try and remove and grease the rear drive shaft splines this weekend (PB Blast-her tonight). What is the preferred method for breaking the bolts at the yoke loose. I know to go from the bolt side instead of the nut, but can you used the resistance of the driveline and get them loose, or do you need to feed a screw driver through the yoke so as not to load the transfer case and differential etc..?

Thanks,
Rookie2

 

[Waggoner5]

Either/or. What ever you are comfortable with. I use the driveline break method. Theres no way to hurt the driveline with a pair of 14mm wrenches.

 

[concretejungle]

take a couple of pics and i'll follow your lead.

 

[nakman]

Here's the method I ended up with after my 3rd or 4th driveshaft removal a couple weeks ago, worked great.

Keep the tires on the ground, and put the t-case in neutral. Remove the bolts at the diff first, you should be able to get to them all with the right combination of extensions. Once they're out, put one of the bolts back in for safety, don't worry about the nut but you can put it on if you're worried. remove the T-case bolts one at a time, starting with the easiest one to get to. Then pull your safety bolt out of the diff side, spin the shaft 90° until the next t-case bolt is easy to grab, then reinsert your safety bolt & remove bolt 2 at the t-case. Repeat 2 more times.

The safety bolt is just so the shaft doesn't fall down and smack you in the head- hth...

 

[Rookie2]

Here's the method I ended up with after my 3rd or 4th driveshaft removal a couple weeks ago, worked great.

Keep the tires on the ground, and put the t-case in neutral. Remove the bolts at the diff first, you should be able to get to them all with the right combination of extensions. Once they're out, put one of the bolts back in for safety, don't worry about the nut but you can put it on if you're worried. remove the T-case bolts one at a time, starting with the easiest one to get to. Then pull your safety bolt out of the diff side, spin the shaft 90° until the next t-case bolt is easy to grab, then reinsert your safety bolt & remove bolt 2 at the t-case. Repeat 2 more times.

The safety bolt is just so the shaft doesn't fall down and smack you in the head- hth...

Thanks. Sounds good, but I was under the impression I would only need to remove the diff. side in order to remove half the shaft and grease the spline.

Jungleman: I'd take a pic. but don't know how to with a screw driver in one hand and a wrench in the other. Maybe you could post a pic. showing me how .

Thanks for the input gents.


Rookie2

 

[concretejungle]

I'll just have to do that then fawker! hehehe I'll do it this weekend if i don't have to put new rotors on my mom's camery.

 

[NorCalDoug]

When I had to remove my rear driveshaft, I had problems getting the bolts out until I put the axles on a couple jack stands. Once the tires were off the ground, it was a piece of cake.

I'd suggest breaking the bolts/nuts loose first, then throwing it up on jack stands to remove the bolts. Worked best for me.

 

[Rookie2]

Doug,

You miss the point..., I have no intention of removing the drive shaft (inside joke, for that first class joke on the LOC board).

Seriously though, I'm trying to get a picture in my head for what putting it up of jack stands will do for you. Is this so you can unbind the driveshaft?

Thanks,
R2

 

[NorCalDoug]

Yep -- up on jack stands to unbind the shaft. It fought with the last bolt on the diff side until I threw her up on stands and got the rear tires off the ground. Was a piece of cake then.

 

[nakman]

I was under the impression I would only need to remove the diff. side in order to remove half the shaft and grease the spline.

Yes, I would say that's correct, but it's going to be a lot harder to reassemble the thing under the truck. I think that the extra time it takes to unbolt the small part from the T-case will more than be made up for when you have both sides out on the bench. Then you can clean up both u-joints real well, grease them up real good, and really see how the splines go together and what kind of crap is crammed up in there in the dead spot. Much harder to do if it's dangling from the truck a foot above the ground.

Also remember the zirk fitting you want to remove is on the short end too... if you take the zirk out the driveshaft slides apart easier, and slides together. It'll be way hard to slide the splines together, with the zirk in place.. and doing that upside down will make it suck even more. I think in this case an extra 2 minutes will save you at least 20..

 

[Rookie2]

Okay, Thanks Doug & Nakman. Back outside to blaster the TC side.

Maybe alot of this will be obvious when I've got it off, but as far as cleaning and re-greasing: throw the brake cleaner and rags to it? Then re-greasing... grease the splines by hand, then a few pumps into the zirk for good measure.. anything elst?

Thanks for the help. Hoping to get it right on the first try.


Rookie2

 

[Rookie2]

Well, I finally got around to this today. When I was trying to remove the nuts on the rear driveshaft yoke at the t-case, it seemed to be putting a lot of torque on the t-case flange. I stopped from fear of somehow damaging the t-case. Does this seem right??

I ended up just removing the driveshaft at the rear diff. and pulled it out of the yoke to grease the splines. Had to bang on the dust cover quite a bit to get it off and clean the grease that was packed towards the driveshaft end.

Not sure how this is going to fix my clunk though.

Thanks for any advise.

Rookie2

 

[97cruiser]

Rokie2, Sorry but it's not gonna fix your clunk. Maybe temporarily at best.


Vince

 

[Rich]

Cranking on the bolts that fasten the driveshaft to the transfer case output is not going to harm the transfer case. What kind of torque do you think you are able to apply that comes even close to the torque on the driveline when accelerating a 6k lbs truck?

The noise that greasing the splines cures is the noise that occurs when the splines, which can bindup during braking, release when almost stopped or on startup if they didn't finally slip on stopping. The noise on my truck is more like a groan or a thump than like a clunk or sharp rap.

 

[lowtideride]

Pull the zerk fitting or you'll never get the drive shaft back together. It makes an air pocket that you have to compress and its a snap with out the zerk in. Put the zerk fitting on grease it then take the zerk fitting back off to put the drive shaft back on so the extra grease will comes out. ah and make sure they are in phase when ya put them back together. (my 2 cents)

 

[Safado]

Rookie, go for it with a little more umph. The force you're putting on it is nothing it can't handle...just remember.

Righty Tighty
Lefty Loosey

 

[Rookie2]

I guess the queeziness I was getting was due to the movement/rotation that was occurring in the driveshaft. Kind of like the yeilding movement you get when you brake a bolt or screw. If you all are saying it's all good then I'll squeeze my pecks on it with no worries.

Thanks,
Rookie2

 

[Safado]

Just think of what force you're puttin on it versus what the t-case must do on a regular basis to move that fat a$$ up some of the obsticles we put them through. Use a breaker bar and it will go.

 

[landtoy80]

My bolts were stuck, I mean STUCK!!!
My Kmart impact wouldn't even budge the bolts or nuts.
I had to go to Sears and get one of thier 600 ft/lbs @90psi in reverse. I had to crank up the comp to 120+psi and it still several min. per each nut/bolt. The metal was flying as it hammerd away. I had to get all new nuts and bolts as they were well worn.

Remember to put marks on the drive shaft and flange as it needs to go back the same as you took it apart.

I you can't get the driveshaft back together without removing the zirk, you may of not cleaned it good enough. If air can't get past the seal, grease will never make it past. You don't want it to hydro lock. Thay mayof been what killed my t-case???

 

[Rookie2]

I didn't have much trouble getting the driveshaft back on (although removing the zirk before hand would have been a good idear). It's all about squeeze'n the pecks .

Are you all typically pounding the dust cover off to get everything cleaned out good? I had to beat the H out of it to get it off and back on.


Rookie2