How to Replace a Corvette Half-Shaft U-Joint - Page 2

When the nuts are off, remove the u-bolts. You may need to wedge a screw driver between the u-bolt and the u-joint bearing cup to persuade them out. With the u-bolts out, by rotating the tire about half-way in either direction, you'll be able to slide the entire half-shaft with u-joints out.

On the workbench, use needle-nosed pliers to remove the snap retainer rings on the u-joints.

Support the half-shaft with a block of wood so the lower bearing cup is elevated from the work surface. Use a 7/8 inch socket and mallet to tap the upper bearing cup down, which will drive the lower cup out of the half-shaft. After removing the lower cup (a pair of vice-grip pliers may make it a bit easier to extract it if it's stubborn), flip the half-shaft over and repeat the process for the remaining bearing cup.

Zip Products also has a special tool available for removing and installing u-joints, shown here. It consists of a sliding cylindrical hammer (top), a receiver cup (lower left) and a button (lower right). The button goes into the lower bout of the sliding hammer and is retained by tightening the four Allen screws for removing u-joints.

The receiver cup is placed on the lower half of the flange to receive the bearing cup as it is driven out. The hammer with the button installed is placed on the upper bearing cup and the sliding weight raised and slammed down to drive the lower bearing cup out. The half-shaft is then flipped over and the procedure repeated to remove the remaining bearing cup.

Here's the gremlin that ruined my ride. As I suspected, the passenger-side outer u-joint had failed when one of its retainer clips came loose, thus allowing the bearing cup to work its way free resulting in the bad vibrations and thumping.

As you can see, the slapping of the u-joint spline against the trunion made its mark.