1995 Chevy Silverado U JOINT

I think you are refering to a c-clip. It is what holds the u-joint from falling out. You will need to take something like needle nose pliers, a screwdriver or anything you can use to remove the clip.

Once it is removed, then comes the interesting part. Trust me when I say the old joint won't just fall out. Take a socket (larger than the diameter of the round joint) and place it under the area that the joint needs to come out. Next, take a socket that is slightly smaller than the round section of the joint and hammar the joint through the other side until you can remove the caps and the joint comes apart.

Reverse the order when reinstalling the new one. NOTE: There are needle bearings under the caps. THe old one doesn't matter but make sure not to distrub the new ones. Also, make sure the C-clips are properly installed when finished.

Let me know if you have questions. This is easy to do but hard to explaine.

If the U-joints are original (factory), you will not have the "C-clips" mentioned by Jacobandnickolas. The factory installed U-joints have a heated liquid nylon-polymer substance injected into the caps of the U-joints. The polymer hardens quickly, after injected (at factory) when it cools. The nylon material is super tough (tough enough to break the jaws of a vice when trying to press the caps off...don't ask).

As I said above, if you don't have C-clips, you have the nylon polymer on the inside of each U-joint cap. To remove them, you have to use a propane torch on each cap. Slowly move the flame around the head of each cap (with drive shaft removed from vehicle) and eventually you will see the nylon material squirt out of a small hole in the cap (not unlike those "Snake" pellets you light on the fourth of July). Be carefull, all the parts will be hot for a little while.

The new (aftermarket) U-joints will have the "C-clips" as mentioned above. When putting the new one on the driveshaft, you have to start the joint, without the caps first into the diveshaft end that has the fully encompassed hole. Then the caps go through the hole of the shaft end (from out to in) and onto the U-joint. It is tricky but you have to make sure that the needle bearings don't fall down/into the cap (laying flat instead of standing up against wall of cap).

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