Somebody Forgot to Say "No" to Drugs

On Thursday night it was time to bust out some joints.

U-joints, obviously. You know, to bust the old ones out of the drive shafts. I’m no pot-head. Although someone nearby WAS smoking the ganja, and the smell of it was very strong out on the back patio while I worked. So there’s that.

The universal joints were not in good shape, although a couple might have had some life left in them. But in one of them, the needle bearings had mostly been crunched into small pieces. In another, there was no lubrication, since the hole under the cap, where the grease comes through, had gotten blocked with a concretion of old, greasy dirt.

Those needle bearing-shaped grooves should probably not be there

The online tutorial I read about removing u-joints made it look pretty easy, and recommended that you use a hammer and spark plug socket to bang the joints out. Like many of the Eagle’s parts, they were pretty well stuck, and though I eventually managed to remove all of them, my spark plug socket is a little the worse for wear:

Let’s hope the new ones go in a little easier after I clean the drive shafts.