Rattling Sound From Rear and Highway Vibration

[KerryBoehm]

Thanks all. I took it for a 30 mile drive yesterday. Going from Park to Drive, Park to Rev I heard a crack, feel a thud. I'm really thinking U joints too. Will get under it in the next couple days and check it out. Probably been 30 years since I changed one.

 

[rdezs]

I recently did the u-joints in my wife's 2014 Escalade when it had around 162,000 miles, just as a preventative maintenance thing. Each bearing cup still had plenty of grease. But OMG, those bearing cups were rusted in pretty good. I've got all the fancy presses and u-joint tools, a torch, and both rear u-joints fought for every 1/32nd of an inch. Never been so frustrated on simple u-joints. Just start off using the torch to heat it up till the plastic retainer starts oozing out. The front ones however didn't put up a fight....

 

[petethepug]

Check out this sitch …

Thread '08 Tahoe Vibration - SOLVED'
https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/08-tahoe-vibration-solved.149734/

 

[Doubeleive]

Thanks all. I took it for a 30 mile drive yesterday. Going from Park to Drive, Park to Rev I heard a crack, feel a thud. I'm really thinking U joints too. Will get under it in the next couple days and check it out. Probably been 30 years since I changed one.

ya these are not the old school type, they have to be melted out.
probably easiest to pull the drive shaft and check them with the shaft out.
just don't have a guy work on it on a saturday that doesn't want to be there

 

[KerryBoehm]

Check out this sitch …

Thread '08 Tahoe Vibration - SOLVED'
https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/08-tahoe-vibration-solved.149734/

Thanks! I did some searches before I posted and read through that thread. I've been trying to source compatible vehicles for drive shaft. I have a 2007 4WD with the 4L60E. Not finished researching but that seems to limit my choices to just 2 years. I frequent junk yards and would like to find a jy driveshaft to put in while I fight with U joint replacement

 

[KerryBoehm]

ya these are not the old school type, they have to be melted out.
probably easiest to pull the drive shaft and check them with the shaft out.
just don't have a guy work on it on a saturday that doesn't want to be there
View attachment 447821

What do you mean by melted out?

 

[donjetman]

What do you mean by melted out?

Factory u-joints since forever have been glued in place and not held in with inner or outer clips. Replacement u-joints use clips.
Heat (torch) melts the glue so they can be removed easier.

 

[KerryBoehm]

Factory u-joints since forever have been glued in place and not held in with inner or outer clips. Replacement u-joints use clips.
Heat (torch) melts the glue so they can be removed easier.

Ahhh, thank you. I'm showing my age . It's been a very long time since I replaced a U Joint. Probably late 80's / early 90's on a vehicle from the 70's

 

[KerryBoehm]

I ended up ordering the Dorman Driveshaft. Due to arrive Thurs. I was a bit leery attempting heating/beating the old ones out and then have a disabled vehicle occupying the driveway. I was going to pull a whole drive shaft from the U Pull It nearby but they only had one vehicle compatible and now we got a bunch of snow. Figured I could just put that one in and then take the shaft up to the shop where I have a lot more tool options or vice versa. Probably only would have saved $200 (I don't have a tool for U Joints) going that option and all the hassle so just went with new. Looking at the old one I probably want to make sure I'm up on tetanus shots with all the rust and I've heard rust can throw them off balance.

So now the question is how likely are the drive shaft bolts at the differential to come out easy ?