My axle u-joints needed replaced. I knew that dissassembling everything would ruin the hub bearings. So I sprung for the Dynatrac kit. The Dynatrac kit, axle u-joints and grease ran me $1900.
I went over to my buddies yesterday and we got to work. He did his truck by himself 2 months ago and it took him all day. Needless to say he learned and knew what to expect when we did mine. He has all the tools that one would ever need for this job. Tooling was never an issue for us.
We started around 11am and I torqued the last lugnut back on around 2:30 p.m. So yes, it only took us 3 1/2 hours. While he was doing one thing I was doing another. We never took a break.
As most know, the hub bearings are a pain in the "ahem". And they were a pain for us too. My truck was in TX till Oct 06 and has been here in MD up to now, so half of its life it has been in mild winter conditions here in MD. The left hub bearing gave way and popped off after about 10 minutes of beating it and heating it. The right side was another story. We beat it and heated it to no end. It finally let a pop. That pop was not a good pop. It seperated itself. We just kept going till it fully seperated. At that point we grabbed the cutting torch and showed it who's boss. Next was the axle u-joints. Here again, we didn't even think about messing with the axle u-joints. We torched them out so all we had to do was knock the caps out. The left u-joint was toast. Clicking and binding. Right side was somewhat smooth still. My truck has 115,000 miles on it with all original parts. I used Neapco axle u-joints. P/N 3-0485. They went in with zero issues.
I will post up any mileage difference I see. I am not expecting anything drastic, but anything is better than nothing. Especially since I religiously get 19.5 - 20 mpg commuting.
Here are few pics. Sorry about the first couple of pics being blurred. They were with the cell phone. Since I have aftermarket rims with more of an offset (yes they are dirty and that is my next project), the hubs barely stick out. I think it looks pretty good. We cut my existing center caps to fit over the new hubs. New caps are on the way.
- 2004 2500 QC Short Bed, 4x4, 48re, Brite White, HOG 4" T-304 T-Back, Self made PSMBuick style intake, Isspro Pyro/Boost/Tranny Temp sittin on the dash
- 06 Pilgrim Legends 30RE2SLF-5 12,000lbs loaded
- B&W Hide-A-Ball w/5th wheel Companion
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