Snapped a u-joint on I-25 outside Denver, swapped it in 40 minutes

Cruising at 75 mph when the driveshaft started vibrating like crazy, pulled over and found the front u-joint completely blown out on my '86 F-150. I had a spare in my parts box from a junkyard trip last month, so I dropped the shaft, hammered in the new joint, and got back on the road before dark. Anyone else carry spare driveline parts in their rig or am I just paranoid?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

blake_black471mo ago

You carry a spare u-joint AND the tools to swap it on the side of the road? That's the kind of thinking that saves weekends. I always toss a spare in the glovebox after the first time I got stranded in a gas station parking lot with a blown joint. Also worth keeping a cheap ratchet strap in there, it helps hold the shaft up while you're wrestling the caps back in. And make sure the new joint has grease fittings, not the sealed ones, they die way faster on a lifted truck. Forty minutes is solid time, took me over an hour the first time because I fought the snap rings like an idiot.

1