Hey peeps, i'm on vacation, 1200 miles from home, 2 days ago my truck, under heavy acceleration, started making odd squealing sounds underneath. It got worse today. Upon closer inspection, I noticed transfer case fluid coming out from the front of the rear drive shaft. It seems as if the fluid was coming out of a grease nipple inside the u-joint, and not the seal itself.

I'm guessing it's the transfer case seal leaking despite this, but am arguing with myself. First off, the sound only comes out under hard acceleration, never while free-wheeling.

What do you guys think?

Thanks

 

Sounds like a u-joint to me!

 

Well, you're right, I took it to a mechanic who deals with transmissions and confirmed that yes I have a bad seal and both U-joints are bad. The noise is from the joints. They use OEM parts apparently, 88$ for the seal, 89 each u-joint and 2.5 hrs of labor, and then tax on top. So, the total for them to do the work? 551$.

I usually work on my own vehicles, this sounds like a rip-off to me, or is this how much i'd usually expect?

 

I would go get greasable u-joints from NAPA for $15 and a cheaper seal too but that's just me.

 

Will they last for your 1200 mile trip back home? 550 does sound a bit high IMO. So get a quote from some other places

 

I'm glad you got it fixed.Man that was a rip-off,I'm not trying to add insult to injury im just saying.The owner of our shop would of done it for maybe 150-ish.

 

Well, I didn't have it done, this was just a quote and dropped the idea of having it fixed when I called napa and found greasable joints for under 20$ each and seal for 15$.

So I bought these, truck lasted another 1500 miles, but now I have the shaft off.

It took my 68lb vise to start slipping the u joints through the yoke, but manuals tell me to use a vise grip to pull the caps off once they're out sufficiently? That's a total joke, the caps are still in there solid as hell. I tried using the vise itself and then twist the shaft but I can never seem to get enough of a grip.

So for those who have done this, how did you pull the caps out from the yoke? Thanks.