I spoke with a drive line shop yesterday about replacing my u joints. After confirming that the 06's have the nylon resin to secure the ujoints, he said they did not have a greasable one and would have to put in another AAM ujoint but this one has clips. He also said there was .0010 dif between AAM and Spicer or Precission ujoints. Is there a difference between the replacement and factory because I don't want to put in another piece of junk. Oh, the AAM cost $53 to $71 a piece depending on which one I have. For those of you with 06's what have you replaced the ujoints with? Part numbers would be great. Any insight is welcomed as well.

 

between you and me, 0.001" isn't anything to think about. considering that the thickness of a piece of paper is 0.0035. a small amount of grime in the ujoint will more than compensate for that.

 

yeah nothing to worry about with only 1 thousandth of an inch....I would be really surprised if you couldn't use an aftermarket U-joint like precesion...

 

I've got 160,000 miles on my original drive shaft U joints. Been worrying about them lately, but there is no sign of failure yet. So I just ordered a new driveshaft from Dodge to have ready to bolt in. The whole factory shaft with the front spline and both joints, ready to go, was only $181.

It doesnt have greaseable joints but they seem to last a long time. The next go around I'll just put new greaseable joints in the old shaft and have it ready to go in. By then I'll be somewhere over 300,000 miles.

 

I used Precision brand 351A but mine is a manual trans and lwb. The auto trans has different joints (smaller). Go to rockauto dot com and use their parts list. I found the p/n there and they had the best price. Then I negotiated with a local o riellys and got them there for the same price.

 

I replaced mine with precision 330 (auto), still had a tiny vibration between 65 and 75 mph. Lived with the vibration for 10,000 miles. Finally just took the drive shaft to a drive line place. They put in 2 new spicer u joints and balanced it for $113, so smooth now, it's awesome.

Never had a truck that needed new u joints at 42,000 miles. Hopefully the spicer joints they put in will last longer.

 

It is my understanding that if you use Precision U joints in the rear shaft, you need to use the ones that end with A (as in AAM the manufacturer of the drive shaft). For the manual you will need 351A, for the auto you will need the 330A. The regular 330 and 351's will fit, but they will be tight and eventually gall out the end caps. I am not sure what year they went to the AAM driveshaft, but I do know that an 06 is an AAM. I made the mistake of forcing in the regular 330's and now I am waiting for them to fail...

 

Swayse, what was the Spicer Part Number. Neapco makes an aftermarket ujoint for out truck that is non greasable but from what I hear is a quality product.

 

That is a great idea!

 

I used some 330As(I think) from Napa, and just ground down the little ridge on the caps and it will let the ring seat just fine. They were $35~ I think from Napa.
Im also assuming you are talking about the rear driveshaft. Also the autos and 6spds have two seperate sizes/PNs


Im about to tackle the front driveshaft, and I think I may just order a front ds from the dealership($230~) then I dont need to mess with rebuilding the "CV" joint too

 

So from what I hear, the stock AAM u joints are cold forged, which would make them stronger than most hot forged aftermarket u joints out there. Problem is they don't like grease. So if you pack them good, you should be good for a while. The neapco units are nice, I put some in the front drive shaft, guess what, non greasable, take one apart, guess what, there hollow too. Looks like the only dif. is they put a grease zerk in, or they dont'??? I have a set of normal Spicer U-joints, and I'll replace the rear stockers when it's time (and trim them down .010" of an inch) but would like to go with a cold forged u joint in the future for added security.

 

Dumb question here, but would it be possible to drill and tap one of the factory u-joint caps on each joint for a grease fitting? I don't know if the joints have the passages for the grease to get to the other caps. I figured the shaft would need to be balanced after.

 

I just changed my u-joints. The Precsion brand 351a would not work in my drive shaft the actual body of the joint wouldn't pass the ears of the shaft. I wound up getting them form Advance auto the brand was Neapco 3-0486 I think which directly cross references to the Precsion 351a ,but they are different. The Neapco's are exactly like factory ,but are not greaseable.