u-joints

[cawkazn]

so u-joint stands for universal joint? now do I need to get a specific u-joint for my 97 ford explorer? or will any u-joint work?

 

[imp]

so u-joint stands for universal joint? now do I need to get a specific u-joint for my 97 ford explorer? or will any u-joint work?

Your Ex. has more than one U-Joint! It may have 2 or even 4! If it is a 4X4 it will even have some special U-Joints known as Constant Velocity Joints!

Be sure to get the correct ones. We usually do not mess with them until they begin to give trouble, but occasionally one fails dramatically, suddenly allowing the driveshaft to fall to the pavement while the vehicle is moving. In the event the front rear-driveshaft U-Joint fails in this way, it may seek the first big crack in the pavement, catch fast into it, and maybe flip the whole vehicle over!

There you have the story on your U-Joint! imp

 

[cawkazn]

well a U-joint broke on my explorer. Im guessing its the rear one, there is a driveshaft dangling out, but its going with the car not against it so it couldnt flip the car. but that doesnt matter because wether the car is in park or drive or whatever it goes no where when i rev the engine, and also it wont stay put in park either, its as if it is in neutral the whole time. any idea what type of u-joint that is?

 

[Paraphoe]

That's your rear shaft. Assuming the shaft isn't spinning, it's probably the front joint on the rear shaft. Can you provide pictures? How did this happen? While you were driving? That would be a pretty catastrophic failure if the joint exploded and the shaft just dropped out...

Anyway, you can just make a run to Pepboys, Advance Auto, etc. and just specify which joint blew out and purchase the correct replacement from them. They should be able to look up the right part. I just changed all of mine out about 2 months ago. Replacement joints were cheap, under $20 each.

My thread can be found here:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=279644

 

[cawkazn]

thanks for the help! ill have some pics up by sat or sun. It happened while I was driving. The car does not idle so I have to rev it to keep it from dying, its weird, the car has many problems. So I would have to rev it and pop it in gear, and than I popped it into gear and the u joint broke and now the drive shaft is dangling out.

 

[my pos mounty]

My suggestion would to be to fix your u-joint, then quickly fix whatever the issue is with the engine in your TRUCK.
Revving it and dropping into gear will have much more expensive consequences than the u-joint if you continue to do that. It will be much much cheaper to fix the underlying problem.
Do you have a "check engine" light on at this time? If so, right after you repair the u-joint, drive your TRUCK down to your local autoparts store and ask them if they can read the codes for you.

 

[cawkazn]

hi, heres some pics of what happened. it looks like i just need a new u-joint. but the part of the drive shaft that connects onto it looks like the little socket part may have gotten chipped(4th pic), so maybe it wont get a good hold on a new u-joint? the drive shaft is sticking out (going with traffic). heres some pics, i found a guy that would fix it for me pretty cheap i just need the parts. I want to make sure i have the right parts when he gets here. if someone could answer this for me asap that would be great! thanks for all the help! or if there is anyone in the riverside ca area willing to fix it if i pay them that would be great. feel free to pm me for my number.

pics:

 

[Explorer Junky]

looks like you need to take a trip to the junk yard for a rear drive shaft!! That thing got tweaked!! In my opinion, I would NOT use that again!!! The new joint would just slop around in there and blow up again!

 

[gavin]

looks like you need to take a trip to the junk yard for a rear drive shaft!! That thing got tweaked!! In my opinion, I would NOT use that again!!! The new joint would just slop around in there and blow up again!

I could not agree more.

and like my pos mounty said, work on getting the idle issues fixed too, or else it could be more disastrous next time; not to mention possibly more costly.