U-Joints on Rear Axle

[cdautrey]

The other day a co-worker of mine told me he and another gentleman heard a noise when I was backing up and then put it in drive that sounded like my u-joints were possible going out. I have 2019 Ram 1500 Bighorn and I have heard some noises from time to time, but I don't have much experience with U-joints. Any suggestions on what I should be listening for or is this something that I should be able to check myself?

 

[WXman]

If a U-joint on the driveshaft has failed, there will be a lot of slop between the pieces at the joint. You can grab the shaft and forcefully push it back and forth and you'll see looseness and play in the joint. Some trucks also have a center bearing and 2-piece shaft and that center bearing can also fail.

 

[cdautrey]

Is it common for them to go out? I've got around 101k miles on it.

 

[Rick3478]

Yeah 100K sounds possible. Sure wouldn't hurt to check. They used to put Zerk fittings on these but that went out of style along with maintainable batteries.

 

[HSKR R/T]

Yeah 100K sounds possible. Sure wouldn't hurt to check. They used to put Zerk fittings on these but that went out of style along with maintainable batteries.

Because most people never greased the joints even when there was a grease zerk and they would fail more often than sealed units used today

 

[BowDown]

The other day a co-worker of mine told me he and another gentleman heard a noise when I was backing up and then put it in drive that sounded like my u-joints were possible going out. I have 2019 Ram 1500 Bighorn and I have heard some noises from time to time, but I don't have much experience with U-joints. Any suggestions on what I should be listening for or is this something that I should be able to check myself?

Most squeak when they are on the way out, this occurs first then they start developing a lot of slop in the driveline.
I don't recall that the u-joints on the Gen 5 are greaseable and I know that I replaced the joints on my previous gen 3 truck twice in 277k miles so 100K miles till a failure may not be abnormal esp if you tow

 

[Mountain Whiskey]

100k, u joint can go easily. Was it a clunk or just a squeak/squeal?

By the way, if the u-joint on your rear axle is bad, as the thread title states, well sir, you have big time troubles then. Driveshaft is not so bad but rear axle u-joints are a whole other world!