I have a bad u-joint and have heard that replacing the drive shaft is recommended.

I have also heard/read where the aftermarket U-Joints are not the right tolerances for the stock drive shaft. So the drive shaft has to be machined, with additional costs and time. And it's no guarantee that it will work. (I don't like the sound of this route.)

Toyota replacement parts are fairly cheap
U-Joint $69.95
Drive shaft $98.95

What has anyone else done?

2001 2wd 3.4l Limited

 

If the u-joint is going out and hasn't completely fallen apart, I wouldn't see any reason to replace the drive-shaft.

I haven't heard that aftermarket u-joints don't fit. I also don't know why you should replace the driveshaft.

 

i just had my rear u-joint replaced. the one at the rear diff. toyota did it for me and it solved all my problems. the joint was pretty bad, but i saw no reason to replace the driveshaft, and neither did they (which is surprising)

id say just get the u-joint replaced and go from there.

 

I don't want to spend the extra 100 bucks for the new drive shaft if I don't have to.

How hard are the u-joints to replace? Can they be tricky?

 

theyre not very difficult. its just you have to take the driveshaft off, and remounting it and making sure its properly balanced is the tricky part. id say its a 3 or so banana job outa 5.

 

lol thanks Andy