My rear joint is bad and making noise and vibration. I see the 4 bolts holding the bearing caps to the rear yoke with straps, but how do i get the universal out of the drive shaft? I'm guessing I need to press them out but with what? Any idea what mazda charges to do this for me? If I buy one more tool I'm going to need a larger garrage. However Harbor Freight does sell small presses.....

 

the 83+ cars, mazda sells you the whole drive shaft assembly

 

in my 79 i got both u-joints replaced by a local company for 110.00....

 

Thank you, I have called all over and back today for the universal joints and they are impossible to get. I however didn't call mazda. Guess I'm looking at buying another driveshaft. Ebay has them used for around $100, any idea what mazda charges? I'd rather have a new one anyhow, it's like buying used breaks...



Forgot to mention my car is the 85 GS

 

m026-25-100 list price is $590...



wow i remember i bought an aftermarket shaft for 250~ and it was only $30-40 cheaper than a new mazda one, i guess not any more!

 

Found a good used one on ebay for $72 with $25 to ship. Hope everything works ok.

 

It took me a while to figure out you were talking about the U-joints in the driveshaft. U/V joints? Never heard that before, I was trying to figure out what ultra-violet CV joints had to do with a solid rear-axle car.



The stock driveshaft has staked-in U-joints as opposed to U-joints held in place with C-clips (like all normal cars). A good drive shaft specialist can cut out the stock U-joints and cut a groove for a C-clip. I think I paid $100-$150 when I had mine done about ten years ago. From that point on it's a simple bench fix for busted U-joints. The downside is that it makes the joint caps weaker, but I'm running a half-bridge and mine's held up fine.