Hello folks,
Recently I was getting some vibration from the drive line in my 86' HB. I found that the drive shaft's center bearing needed replacing again, which is really a joy to remove.
Additionally I found play that indicated that the shaft's u-joints needed replacing. No big there, u-joint bearing replacement would be what, forty bucks? NOT. I was really disappointed to find out that the u-joints on my truck were what you call "staked-in". Staked-in is code for "you are f-ed". Meaning that the bearings are not removable by the common back-yard Joe mechanic. They are made to be permanent. What a great idea Nissan!
I wound up taking the drive shaft to a drive line speciality shop where they cut both ends off of it, welded new ones on, balanced it, and replaced the center bearing. It now has replaceable u-joint bearings.
Needless to say, I wasn't very happy with that design from Nissan, who by the way told me that the drive shaft wasn't a serviceable part. They don't sell replacement drive shafts for that model truck either.
I really don't have much to complain about my truck, it has been great, but because Nissan chose to save a few bucks in manufacturing, it wound up costing me over $700 to essentially replace my u-joints. Ouch. All good now, but after that I need to replace my wallet due to excessive leakage.
Recently I was getting some vibration from the drive line in my 86' HB. I found that the drive shaft's center bearing needed replacing again, which is really a joy to remove.
Additionally I found play that indicated that the shaft's u-joints needed replacing. No big there, u-joint bearing replacement would be what, forty bucks? NOT. I was really disappointed to find out that the u-joints on my truck were what you call "staked-in". Staked-in is code for "you are f-ed". Meaning that the bearings are not removable by the common back-yard Joe mechanic. They are made to be permanent. What a great idea Nissan!
I wound up taking the drive shaft to a drive line speciality shop where they cut both ends off of it, welded new ones on, balanced it, and replaced the center bearing. It now has replaceable u-joint bearings.
Needless to say, I wasn't very happy with that design from Nissan, who by the way told me that the drive shaft wasn't a serviceable part. They don't sell replacement drive shafts for that model truck either.
I really don't have much to complain about my truck, it has been great, but because Nissan chose to save a few bucks in manufacturing, it wound up costing me over $700 to essentially replace my u-joints. Ouch. All good now, but after that I need to replace my wallet due to excessive leakage.