I have a spare that I bought off ebay that I kept in the garage just incase mine ever went out. I think I paid 50 bucks for it, its yours for that price if your interested in it.
Thanks for the positive post so quickly. I expected nothing but off comments about how bad my methods would be.Good to know that with a spare U-joint and some std tools one can make the swap and be on their way again in a few hours.
Not quite the response we're looking for here on ST-Owners my friend... Take it elsewhere.U joint???? is that when your doobie gets bent in your pocket?
There are usually many ways to do the same thing. We'd be pretty closed-minded if we didn't at least look at other options. I had never thought it would be something that could be done at the side of the road in an extreme situation but now I suppose it's quite possible. You don't have to remove the o2 sensors from the pipes if you un plug the elec end from the connection points further forward but that adds the time/effort of removing the side plastic and engine hanger brackets to get to them, I like your approach MUCH better, even in a garage.Thanks for the positive post so quickly. I expected nothing but off comments about how bad my methods would be.
Raymond
excuse me---I shall be more rigid and mature while posting. I forget about my twisted sense of humor, of course I imagine something like this could get silly if not controlled. My mistake.Not quite the response we're looking for here on ST-Owners my friend... Take it elsewhere.
I installed the new Ujoint today and all is well. I checked the slop again with the bike up on the centerstand and running it slowly in first gear. Absolutely no backlash slop or slamming noise at all. Smooth as smooth gets and everything else in the driveline has 126,000 miles. I was a bit surprised at no slap noise at all.
I've read some of the others posts here on technique for the joint replacement. I must say I tend to take the simplest route on fixing the bike. I didn't remove the oxygen sensors from the pipes so the swingarm never came completely off the bike. It was completely loose including all the brake tubing off the arm and moved pretty free as far as the wires allowed. I also had the right side rear casting (peg mount) loose but did not remove the brake lines so the assembly was free to swing about a bit.
I used a magnet and rags and cleaned all the old ujoint bits out of the swingarm inside which was nothing more then ground dust bits. I used a mirror to look inside and it was plenty clean. I had no trouble at all getting all back in place. Ujoint was slipped in easily from below and held in position with the drive shaft.
It was under 2 hours for the entire cleaning and installation and button the bike back up. I also just used a punch to tighten the swingarm nuts on both side of the bike. They came loose with one smack and went back together with a couple hammer smacks. I'm not as concerned as most on the gotta be perfect wrenching stuff and have been doing it for 45 some years now and have no doubt the bike will run just fine and safely. Save your sour comments, do yours your way as you see fit.
I just wanted to explain what I did to all to let you know if you're half way up the Alcan and the Ujoint goes bad you (I) can do this job on the roadside if you have normal tools. I used no tools that I don't normally use for a rear tire change other then the hammer and punch (a bolt would suffice). I plan to carry a spare down the road 75,000 miles or so..
Raymond
That was my problem. I finally bought some long needle nose pliers for the next time around but I had to have someone help me with this part, the rest is relatively basic.That sounds about the same as how I did mine. The only real hard part I had was getting the boot back on. I just could not get my hands in there to pull it on.