Bad u-joint?

Hey tacomaworld. Just started hearing this squeak only when rolling slow, under 10 mph. Goes away when clutch is depressed. Any thoughts? Thanks.

https://youtu.be/vgN4Y_4VyYQ

 

I would say U Join or center bearing...

Visually look for dry rusty powder around the joint caps.
Remove shaft and manipulate all joints feeling for excessive looseness or tighness.

Do them all 3 joints and center bearing.

 

Hey thanks for the reply. Ya, definitely has a dry rusty powder around a most of the u-joints. Can’t manipulate the joints by hand and haven’t tried with a screwdriver. More grease does nothing. Regular cab, so just the two without the bearing I believe?

 

Where does the grease come out when you hit it with a grease gun? Sometimes the passages get clogged in old u-joints and grease can't get to where it needs to. Removing the zerk on each u-joint, picking out the crusty old grease and even hitting with a torch to liquify the crud will help get fresh grease in there and that can buy you a little time.

Really, though, it sounds like you need to pull the drive shaft and service it with new u-joints and a new carrier bearing.

 

Yeah. You got bad universal joints.

Replace them all as the others are probably bad also.

 

The grease comes out of a couple of the caps of the u-joints, not all and back out of the fitting. Definitely going to pull it apart and put new ones in, they have been neglected. Hopefully that is the squeal.

Actually have been chasing a smell for a couple months and after I crammed the joints with lube I could see the grease splattering onto the exhaust just now. So probably was that but to a lesser degree over time.

 

Get one of these. A whole lot less hammering.

 

That was it, no more squeak. One of the caps wasn’t getting grease and the pins were non existent. Press made it easy.