2013 Yukon SLT Nightmarish universal joint

[MacG]

Hello, my apologies if this has been covered a hundred times this is my first post on an actual vehicle thread, I have been working on my u joints on my drive shaft and it has been an awful experience, my initial issue on my Yukon is between 30-40 mph, my vehicle would begin to shake/vibrate, i went and got the tires rotated and balanced, and was advised I had a bad wheel hub, did a quick replacement and boom issue still happening, did further research and stumbled upon u joints, I watched a video went and got the part, removing the joint took me close to 6 hours of constant heat, u joint compressor and absolutely beating the hell out of it with a socket and hammer, cleaned it all up and put the new joint in, the joint was fairly tight with the snap rings in it which concerned me, I went to go put the drive shaft back in and then the joint wouldn’t fit going back into the rear differential, it was doing a sort of teeter tottering movement, I’d put one side in and the other side would just pop out, I tried to put the bolts back in and see if I could get them in together at the same time and it would not budge, called it a day after about an hour of that, next day had to pretty much melt the caps off just to get it out, went and got a Moog replacement, the snap rings it came with are stupidly tight, I can only get one the full way in, my next step is to grind the snap rings down slightly and see if I can get it to fit, is there anyone with recommendations for me to throw at this u joint before I take my next step? Any help is greatly appreciated, I’ll upload photos later if I’m able to

 

[B-train]

You'll need a good vice, or (2) 4x4 boards. When you get the cap in and the snap ring installed, use a hammer on the weld ring (only place you should hit it, otherwise you'll bend the yoke ears inward) to set the cap back against the clip.

Tap in gently the other side while splitting the difference across the caps with the u-joint itself to hold all the needle bearings in place. If you don't do this, you'll probably end up with 1, or a few, that tumble inside and then get stuck in the cap - preventing it from fully seating and unable to get the clip in.

It's a hard process to explain in writing - after a dozen or so it becomes common practice. If all bearings are where they should be, the yoke isn't tweaked inward, the cap ring channel is clean as a whistle, then it will go together as it should. They can be pickles sometimes though.

Long story, short, use the vice as a place to evenly share the load on the u-joint for hammering purposes. Let the joint take the force, not the flanges, if that makes sense

 

[B-train]

After all caps and clips are in, it's OK to load the cap back against the clips a little bit to remove tension on the joint. It should rock freely side to side before install. Any binding will result in you getting to do it again.