I need to replace the steering shaft ujoints on my 2003 XL7. I found one reference online to the ujoints being a Toyo ST-1640, but I wasn't able to source one at my local parts stores, and I'm not sure if I want to chance it with what's available on ebay. Is there anywhere I could find the proper ujoints for the steering shaft and not have to find out they're the wrong ones once I've got the vehicle disabled?

Ummm - the Toyo information may have originated with me - it's what I have on my car - and I have posted the information on line in a few different forums.

To the best of my knowledge, Suzuki does not offer the UJs separately, you have to get the complete lower shaft - I took the shaft off my car to one of our local parts stores and he matched the UJs to the Toyo part.  Suzuki did not design the shaft with the intent of allowing the UJs to be replaced, they are staked in, but, because they are small it doesn't take much pressure to disassemble the shaft (a decent bench vice and a couple of small sockets are all you need) and once reassembled, they can be "re-staked" with a small chisel or a center punch.

The 16 refers to the diameter of the cap (16mm) and the 40 is the length or width from cap to cap (40mm) - as shown below - there are two common sizes, the other one measuring 44mm from cap to cap.



Hopefully now that you know the dimensions you can maybe measure the UJs on your car and have a better idea of whether or not the ST-1640 will work for you.

Thanks for the info fordem. After more parts searching and deliberation, decided it might be more worth my while to just replace the assembly. The ujoints aren't as cheap as you'd think (around $20 CAD, each) plus I find it's a real PITA removing that shaft, and I suspect I'd probably destroy the assembly trying to finesse those tiny ujoints out of there. I'm more used to changing ujoints on commercial trucks and I find, the smaller the joint, the more likely it is to hurt it in the process. I had to fuss with the bottom end of the shaft about 4 times to get my steering wheel straight after I did my body lift and I just hate that job. I found the complete shaft on rockauto for $150 CAD but they were out of stock and I couldn't get the company that makes them to confirm over the phone whether or not the shaft from a GV would work or not (I'm 99% sure it would, all the other front end parts are the same), I ended up looking it up on ebay and found a complete assembly in Quebec for $50 CAD shipped. Winning!