Bad U-joints?
Bad U-joints? How do you tell if your U-joints are bad?
What I'm getting is when I shift the car into drive or reverse, the car lurches into gear pretty hard. Like it clunks or drops into gear hard. Also when it shifts (1-2, 2-3) occasionally there is a clunk along with a slight lagging feeling. The trans shifts beautifully, you can barely even feel the shift most of the time it's so smooth so I know there is nothing bad with the tranny.
Think my u-joints are bad? Are they easy enough to replace where I could do it at home? I'm decently skilled and have a ton of tools, I've just never done a u-joint before.
What I'm getting is when I shift the car into drive or reverse, the car lurches into gear pretty hard. Like it clunks or drops into gear hard. Also when it shifts (1-2, 2-3) occasionally there is a clunk along with a slight lagging feeling. The trans shifts beautifully, you can barely even feel the shift most of the time it's so smooth so I know there is nothing bad with the tranny.
Think my u-joints are bad? Are they easy enough to replace where I could do it at home? I'm decently skilled and have a ton of tools, I've just never done a u-joint before.
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 24,241
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From: Turnin' Wrenches Infractions: 005
Hearing a distinctive clunk or clang noise when engaging a gear while the car is stopped is typically the sign that a ujoint is about to fail. Each time I have had this happen replacing the ujoint fixed the problem. It could also be a trans mount issue but I would lean to the u joint first. As this clunking persists, I have seen it turn to a full scale clicking while driving down the road that increases in frequency as speed increases. My suggestion for a ujoint with stock components is a Precision 234 which is the solid non-greaseable type and will be very strong.
