how do you tell if a cv joint in the front driveshaft is bad?

[mercuryman97]

i have a 1997 mercury mountaineer.....and it has been making a bad clunking and popping noise and a jerky feeling when the front driveshaft is in....so i removed it and replaced all the ujoints and the problem still exists so i removed the driveshaft again.....so someone told me it could be the cv joint in the front driveshaft....so now i want to know how i can tell if the cv joint is bad and how to change it if it is bad.....pics would be great but not necessary?thanks

 

[gavin]

those noises would be the front driveshaft. With it installed, jerk the shaft around at the t-case... if there is a bit of movement, and you can hear clanking, then the CV joint is shot. And that joint is not replaceable, you gotta be a new d/s. The one I need, from FordPartsNetwork, is around $400... I've heard of a replacement that uses a u-joint instead of CV joint, and includes an adapter for changing to that style d/s, but haven't seen or found one myself.

 

[agallant]

I had the front drive shaft go on my 2000. Did the same exace thing. One thing you can try is tak the drive shaft out. If the noise goes away there you go. I drove with mine out for about a year. Any way when i called ford for a replacment the wanted over $600 for just the part. I ended up getting one at a junk yard for $75. Just a word of advice, if you drive around with out the front driveshaft in and decide to put one in at a later date, chase the threds with a tap and remember that you have to do a few turns with the tap and back it out. I snapped a bolt off in my t-case and broke a tap aswell.


-AG

 

[ExplorerDMB]

I've heard of a replacement that uses a u-joint instead of CV joint, and includes an adapter for changing to that style d/s, but haven't seen or found one myself.

I'm changing my front driveshaft to a u-joint driveshaft with a double cardan yoke - to compensate for the lift. I have a '95 driveshaft in the garage with a D.C. on it and a slip joint, so it should work out just fine. The CV-joint in the Explorers aren't really that strong in my opinion. That is one reason why I'm changing and getting away from those.

-Drew

 

[agallant]

I'm changing my front driveshaft to a u-joint driveshaft with a double cardan yoke
-Drew

Where did you get it?

-AG

 

[ExplorerDMB]

It's a special adapter - I got it from a guy off the board, I don't know if you can find them. Good luck. I wuld just purchase the driveshaft from superlift - they'll work just as great.

-Drew

 

[gavin]

there is another thread floating around here where I posted 2 dif places where you can buy the u-joint style d/s and it comes with the adapter.. around $300 I believe... wether or not that includes a core charge I'm not sure... lemme see if I can find the thread

 

[gavin]

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127181

but.. the reply I received from Rockford is that the price I had there was not for the u-joint style I guess.. it's actually around $350 for that one.. but anywhere, there's a couple places to contact.

Anybody know anything about 'em? I emailed 'em about a front driveshaft, like 2 days ago and haven't heard a response yet. Wondering if anybody knows anything?
http://www.rockforddriveline.com/convshaftdrawings.htm

ok, anybody wanting a conversion front driveshaft for the AWD Sploders, they also have them at http://www.shafts.com for $232
oh, and Rockford has it for $230.31 (if it's the right one)