half shafts - rebuild?

Should be able to pull out half shafts with out removing A arm. However I had to take the muffler pipes off the headers to get mine off.

I would rebuild both for peace of mind.

i undid mine both ends compressed them down and was able to manipulate them out without removing anything else.if you are going to pull them apart make sure you mark them so they go back the same.

I saw your other post about the vibration ...

1) I had the same problem when I purchased my car. My wife would complain that the car shakes. I found out that I had a siezed U-joint on the passenger side half shaft.

2) They can be removed without taking off the A-Arm. To make things easier, I undid the 3 bolts holding the exhaust to the header to move it out of the way.

3) Normally Half shafts are dynamically balanced. It is important that you put the parts together (with the new U joints) in exactly the same orientation. I made little marks on the pieces to keep things the way that they were.

4) Do both sides at the same time. I prefer the replacement U-joints with greasable zerks.

HTH

B.G.

The two halves are matched and balanced so it is critical they go back together on the same spline. There really shouldn't be any reason to split the two to replace the U-joints. You'll need a hefty vice (or press) to press the joints out, other than that it's not too bad an exercise.

You mention Spicer Half shafts, which is a common reference term, but OEM shafts are not Spicer, aftermarket ones can be. The aftermarket ones are sold as upgrades but quite frankly the OEM ones are good for 600HP, the Spicer units came into popularity when OEM UJ's were like $300 ea. so it was cheaper to replace the whole shaft and the Spicer shaft uses a Ford truck UJ.

The Spicer and OEM shafts take different size UJ's (Ford truck vs. Metric), so best to check. To confuse matters Hall did a funky workaround when OEM UJ's were real expensive, he sleeved the OEM shafts and used the undersize Spicer UJ's which have a habit of spinning the sleeves and reaming out the shaft.

OEM repro UJ's with zerks are available from the vendors and cheap now something like $45 ea. so pull the sleeves if you have them and go back to OEM UJ's.

Thanks everyone for the help. I have chromed aftermarket Spicer shafts with zerk fittings. Time to pull them and do a rebuild next week.....or maybe the week after? It snowed last night, but the roads are dry and still gravel free. I can handle a bit more vibration. Rip it up!!!