I took my 1997 Ranger 4x4 to a repair shop and they said that all of my U-joints in the front end were bad and had to be replaced. After three hours of TRYING to tear everything apart to fix, the guy called me and said that everything was all rusted and rotted and he couldn't get anything apart to do the repair in the time he estimated (which was 3 hours). He said that it could take an unknown amount of time to do the job and was gracious enough not to charge me for the three hours he put into it because he didn't actually fix anything.

So my questions are:
Is there anything else that can be done?
Do I just need to have him put in the time to do the repair?
Without knowing anything about this stuff, could I get an entire front end from a truck in a junk yard or something and just replace everything? I'm guessing this wouldn't make much sense since a junkyard truck would probably also be all rusted and rotted.
Is there any way to determine how long I can drive like this before everything just fails and leaves me without four wheel drive?

I really appreciate in advance any assistance you may be able to provide.

Thanks,

Scott

 

i have the same problem and it would be easier to pull the whole spindle and replace the ball joints also while they are out