in today's video we're going to go over
some places that you can check for
issues on your rear driveshaft of your
vehicle alright so one of the first
things I always like to do is just try
to talk about maybe some of the simpler
things that we should check first before
we get into something more complicated
such as the driveline itself of course
if you were to jack up the vehicle and
have it in neutral you could potentially
spin those wheels you want to make sure
that none of the wheels are frozen you
can't turn it at all
if your brakes teased up you're gonna
have an issue it's gonna overheat it's
gonna cause vibration and you might
think it's something different when
really it's something as basic as the
brakes another thing we can look at it's
right here
look at this tire this isn't in the best
condition as you can tell some tires
have much more traction they have much
more tread sticking out but you might
also notice that they're pretty much
chopped up some have small layers some
have deep treads and that's gonna of
course cause a vibration as well if you
have weak shocks that could cause a
vibration there could be an issue inside
of your differential where maybe things
are a little bit too loose in there or
even too tight if you've had any service
done or even your wheels could be
damaged or out of balance so let's go
with the idea that none of this is an
issue for you you checked it all it
seems great the brakes aren't hanging up
the wheels are in good enough condition
and we already know that everything else
is checking out that we've talked about
so far so what we do have to do we would
check this driveshaft right here this is
your rear driveshaft it's going to go
from your transfer case if you have a
four wheel drive vehicle if you have a
two wheel drive vehicle you're not gonna
have a transfer case you're just gonna
have a straight up transmission with a
drive shaft to the rear differential in
our case we have four-wheel drive so
there's several things we're gonna check
what I like to do now is go ahead and
take down this driveshaft and take a
closer look okay friends so we got the
driveshaft down on the bench so we can
take a closer look at it right here you
can see the forward u joint this is the
area that's going to be sliding into
that transfer case unit or transmission
if you have a two wheel drive model well
you need to do is lift this up and try
to move this around if it feels as
though it's kind of tight and then
loosens up and then it's tight again
then you know that you have a bad u
joint that means that inside here
where the roller bearings are is either
seized up or it doesn't have enough
grease and it's just not pivoting
properly so if you can take this and you
can go like that and it has no
resistance it's probably alright if you
can take this and do this that's great
you go like this and it's really tight
and then loosens up really tight loosens
up you know that that's a problem
more than likely what you would want to
do is try to add a little bit of grease
to this if there's a grease fitting that
might help cure the issue and it might
only be temporary or it could even be
permanent if you haven't greased it in a
while they probably couldn't hurt but if
you have an area where it's binding more
than likely the damage is probably
already done this right here isn't
actually a drive shaft obviously this
right here is a steering shaft but has a
u-joint and it has the issue that I'm
trying to confirm with you if I was to
take this I can move this no problem if
I go in this direction obviously that
u-joint
is in really poor condition at that
point imagine that on a grander scale
something like this that's gonna have a
whole bunch of torque getting applied
from the drive shaft or from the drive
line to those wheels in the rear if this
u-joints binding and it's at an angle
it's going to cause a severe vibration
you might also notice if you move
further down if you have the four-wheel
drive model you probably have a carrier
bearing that looks like this if this
carrier bearing is separating like this
one right here is then it's in very poor
condition I can take this and I can move
it right along this inside of your
vehicle is a very scary and very unsafe
predicament would you be able to see
that there's this much of an issue
within the vehicle maybe you could maybe
you couldn't I wouldn't be able to move
this like this if it was still in the
vehicle so do you need to remove your
drive shaft to fully diagnose why you
might have a drive shaft issue I would
definitely recommend it once you've
confirmed or declined the fact that this
is needed or not you could of course
move along to your other u-joints you
would test this one and approximately
the same way we'll move all the way down
here and it leads us to this one this
one would be the rear one and it's
closest to the rear differential if I
take this I can give it a little spin
like that and
I feel good I can give these caps a
little spin if it feels like the cap
kind of turns but then stops more than
likely it's binding inside I'm gonna
carefully pull this up and I say
carefully because it has a whole bunch
of little Neal bearings in there if you
were to look inside here you're gonna
see the needle bearings they need to
have plenty of grease on them if you see
that they don't have any grease and
they're super bright red or discolored
or rusted or they've just got gunk in
there more than likely the bearings are
no good and you would want to replace
the u-joint itself all that said I'm
gonna ask you a question would it make
sense to just replace the one u joint
that you found was bad especially if you
happen to check those other u joints and
they seemed as though they were
approximately the same age as an it may
be they're rusted or the boots are
crusty or maybe they feel as though
they're starting to bind a little bit to
me it would only make sense to replace
all the u joints at the same time
because you've just done the majority of
the work by getting the drive shaft out
of the vehicle in the first place okay
friends so on our drive shaft we happen
to find multiple issues we found that
there was a bad u joint in the front
that was starting to bind a little bit
we need to replace that we also found
that the center carrier bearing was in
poor condition it's starting to separate
that absolutely needs to be changed
while I'm at it and the drive shaft is
out I'm gonna go ahead and replace all
the u joints because that's how I roll
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