I've got an '03 4x4. I was able to knock out the caps on the rear portion and now the back of the driveshaft is off the truck. The front of the shaft won't come out (I watched a video where the guy said the front will just slide out of the transmission).

I can't hammer out the old u joint when the damn driveshaft is still hanging loosely from the transmission.

Any advice on removing the whole driveshaft without any torx(sp) sockets?

 

Older models did just slide out of the transmission.

Drive shaft has to have the ability to slide in and out a bit because differential goes up and down with suspension, so is closer and farther from trans.

Not sure what year exactly but Ford moved the "slider" into the drive shaft, you will see a rubber accordion boot covering the slider portion, if you see this then you must remove the 4 bolts at the transmission end.

But you should remove the 4 bolts at differential end as well to get whole u-joint bracket.

You also need to mark drive shaft position on the differential and trans on these types of drive lines, or you "may" end up with a vibration, not "will" but "may".

 

You will need a 12 point 11 or 12 mm socket, please remove the whole thing and mark it ,if not comfortable doing it take it to a shop and have it balanced, it's worth it, do it right, aske how I know

 

I found my 12 point 12mm socket last night... took off both ends this morning (easy cheesy).

Getting the damn of u-joint out was another problem. because it was damaged, I couldn't hammer it out of the driveshaft. 2 hours later, it was finally out.

Took 3 hours to put the new one in because the first time, I slide that sucker in, the pins fell and I couldn't get the damn cap off. The second time I put it in, I THOUGHT the pins had fallen again, but it turned out that the u-joint wasn't going inside the cap straight. Once I figured out the first two caps, it only took me another hour total to assemble everything back together (it was already dark and I was working with a shop light in the cold driveway).


Unfortunately, I did NOT mark the driveshaft. Didn't know I had to... :-(

I'm hoping it went on the right way. What kind of vibration "may" occur and where will it come from? The driveshaft itself?

THanks for the replies. :-)

 

You will have a vibration at any speed, may be 30 may be 65, if this happens rotate the driveshaft 180 degrees from where it is now

 

I'm guessing the vibration should have been present by now... I drive 5 miles to work and on the highway for half the trip. No issues at all. :-)

 

I'm also glad I didn't decide to replace the u-joint on the front of the driveshaft.... what a PITA. lol

 

Glad you got it fixed