I had a couple of recent threads about a squeak/rattle that I thought was u-joint related and where to buy u-joints.

Well, I picked up two pair from the local AutoZone.  I believe they're Naepco (gonna have to look at the box again ) and they're greasable.

I took the rear driveshaft (or propeller shaft as it's called in the shop manual) out and replaced the u-joints today.  Good thing I did 'cause one of the joints was nothing but a pile of rusted together needles and rust dust .

I still have to do the front shaft, but I may put that off to another day.  Oh, that brings in the Space-Time Continuum thing.  Something weird happens to space-time in my garage when I start working on things.  It took me 3 hours to do the rear shaft.  OK, I try to clean everything that I'm working on up really well and I do the torque thing and the tools I use aren't the greatest (I have just a small vise, so I used a couple of sockets and a punch to get the old joints out and pressed them in with the vise), but 3 hours    I remember doing my Corvette driveshaft in 30 minutes (I guess that's what 10+ extra years does to ya).  Hopefully, I learned a few things that'll make the front shaft go quicker -- but I doubt it.

Oh, and I did the tapping on the ears thing with a hammer.  That really works nicely to loosen the joints up.

Well, it's off to the store now to buy a grease gun.  Those joints say they have to be greased once they're installed.

Thanks to all for the tips & help on this one.

Before you put the shaft back on make sure the grease nipple doesn't restrict the movement of the shaft. Or rather make sure that at full droop the grease nipple won't get torn out/squashed. I bought some greasable nipples and then had to run round town trying to find some shorter nipples. Even with shorter ones I still had to dress the yoke a little.

Greasable nipples ..... Sounds kinky
May I suggest Synthetic Grease
Lasts Longer

Ohh, and the front shaft, may never need
new joints as it sees 1/100 the rotational
time the rear does

Wild

Yea, it's the 10+ years. 10+ years ago you wanted to get the Vette fixed and go out looking for women. Now you WANT to be in the shop working on your ride to get away form them

Zig

Greasable nipples ..... Sounds kinky
May I suggest Synthetic Grease
Lasts Longer

Ohh, and the front shaft, may never need
new joints as it sees 1/100 the rotational
time the rear does

Wild

"nipples" -- Yeah,  what will they think of next  

"synthetic" --  I didn't see any synthetic on the shelf.  I just used the standard.

Which, BTW, how do I know when I've filled the joint enough?  Some grease started coming out of the seal, but that worried me a bit because I didn't want to displace the seals.

Also, I know some people use Marine grease which sounds like a good plan if I hit the mud holes again.  Any thoughts on Marine grade grease?

Yea, it's the 10+ years. 10+ years ago you wanted to get the Vette fixed and go out looking for women. Now you WANT to be in the shop working on your ride to get away form them

Zig

You don't post your age, but you are wise.

Oh, one more addendum to this post.

I found a single needle bearing on the garage floor after I finished installing the two new u-joints :-/

I looked in the cups of one of the old u-joints (the other was already in the trash), but it looked like all the needles were there.  The old joints had a nice seal on them that really locked the needles in place too.

I know I dropped one or two of the old cups, and the needle looked like it had heat discoloration on it, but now I'm worried that I lost a needle from one of the new cups

Hopefully not.  But I guess it'll last a little while even with one needle missing :-/

I think one missing needle will be okay.  You were running on rust dust!  

Cwkick

If it was one out of the new u-joints it would not of had the heat blueing. You should be OK.
Zig

BTW, I'm only 19 (mentally )

Zig

Put enough grease in
to push out the old stuff,
don't worry about the seals

I agree with Zig, blue needle
was an old one, the new needles
are stuck pretty good, and don't
bounce out too easy

Wild

Ohh and Synthetic Grease
Mobil 1