2001 yukon xl driveshaft

Hello everyone

I have a 2001 yukon XL 1500 2wd slt. Had ujoints go on me. Took the shaft out to replace. Easy to get out. Nightmare to replace joints.

My 2003 slt xl 1500 4wd is all steel shafts. I was confused to see an aluminum shaft on a 5600lb truck. Insane. They used to be expensive to manufacture lightweight aluminum for racing that you'd throw away when they go bc aluminum can't hold uo as well as steel. Now it's in this type of application... nutz!

My biggest issue is that I can't get the joint out. It teeters on the edge with one cap released. Its like .01 cm from being free, but can't. It gouged the smooth machine finish where is sits as well. I'm worried about all of this. The aluminum is trying to mate to the steel cap and I'm assuming the aluminum has to be torched first for this to work.

I went with these valucraft 2-4800 VC. Computer at the store alleged a fit. Now when I looked up the same model on the site it says for aluminum driveshafts use 2-4801DL part number doesn't exist. Moog makes some, 354 and 355, says steel and aluminum, but not the right clips. I was just gonna take it to a shop and have them press them out clean, file and install tomorrow. I'm on a time crunch, it's my only car at the moment. Will I be ok with the valucraft 2-4800VC? What do you guys think?

Also, the aluminum shaft is considerably larger diameter and the tube is flared by the end caps.. the flared end gives it am inflated value. You cant get a small 7/16 shallow socket on there. I used a wrench and oil to get the bolts off for rhe shackles. I don't see how I can torque these down. Any tricks?

Thank you!

You knock the ujoint caps outwards, NOT inward and thats why you cant get the ujoint out the rest of the way. Use a wrench and quit sweating torque values on a ujoint. Ive never put a torque wrench on a ujoint shackle bolt and have yet to have a driveshaft spit itself out from under a vehicle.

rockola1971 said:

You knock the ujoint caps outwards, NOT inward and thats why you cant get the ujoint out the rest of the way. Use a wrench and quit sweating torque values on a ujoint. Ive never put a torque wrench on a ujoint shackle bolt and have yet to have a driveshaft spit itself out from under a vehicle.

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Thank you for the reply. I did remove the cap aftwr I pushed one side out. But this cap would have to be sent back thru the other side from which it came so I could get it off. I took it to a shop and had them use a press, and clean up fhe flakes of aluminum.

But now I have a new problem. The joints are in. Slip yoke fits well, joint is doing it's job. However, in the rear the cups / caps on the joint that go into the yoke for the diff slide back and forth after I reinstalled the factory straps. It's secure, but moves freely from side to side. I pulled the drive shaft a touch more back to make sure it was seated properly. The joints didn't come with extra clips for after its in the yoke. I'm assuming the joint may be the wrong one. I called a gmc dealer, gave them the VIN and he returned an oem part number of 89040245. Don't know what other brands the cros reference to. But I used what autozones computer alleged would fit based off the vin as a 2-4800VC. Any suggestions? Thank you!

YukonLover said:

Thank you for the reply. I did remove the cap aftwr I pushed one side out. But this cap would have to be sent back thru the other side from which it came so I could get it off. I took it to a shop and had them use a press, and clean up fhe flakes of aluminum.

But now I have a new problem. The joints are in. Slip yoke fits well, joint is doing it's job. However, in the rear the cups / caps on the joint that go into the yoke for the diff slide back and forth after I reinstalled the factory straps. It's secure, but moves freely from side to side. I pulled the drive shaft a touch more back to make sure it was seated properly. The joints didn't come with extra clips for after its in the yoke. I'm assuming the joint may be the wrong one. I called a gmc dealer, gave them the VIN and he returned an oem part number of 89040245. Don't know what other brands the cros reference to. But I used what autozones computer alleged would fit based off the vin as a 2-4800VC. Any suggestions? Thank you!

Click to expand...

Call up autozone and have them pull out their ujoint cross reference book and look up the autozone brand cross for a 89040245 Ujoint. See if their answer matches what you have. Is the yoke that you jammed the cup through the one that has the joint sliding back and forth?

I went to autozone website and punched in the GM# and it shows the autozone cross as a 2-1569VC.

For your Ujoint to be sliding side to side it would have to be not as wide as your original. The caps should seat down roughly tight to the ujoint center casting. There should be almost no gap between the bottom of the cup and where it goes up against the center of ujoint just like the below picture.

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Yes. That's the side u had an issue with. The joint fits tight in the end of the shaft. It's just the end that goes into the yoke on the differential.

Where did u cross reference 2-1569VC? I got a different number from a Google search? If you look at the part number you located- " 2-1569VC" it shows at the bottom of the page, if an aluminum drive shaft, use 2-0621DL. I have aluminum, and when I search that part number; nothing comes up.
Plus it has the two interference clips, which I'm sure get installed on the drive shaft hole. And the other side of the u joint has two grooves,.I'm assuming those go into the rear end l, and the clips just shim it and stop it from sliding. The joint that I took out did not have those c style snap clips on fhe cups, it was just using 4 of those interface clips on the outside of the cups, against