Driveshaft DIY vs Shop

Soo I’m about to order a new u-joint and carrier bearing and I wanted to ask yall if you feel it’s worth it to DIY a driveshaft rebuild or to just take it to a shop? I’m fairly mechanically inclined and confident in my skills, but I have heard rebuilding these shafts can be a major pain so I wanted to see what you guys think! If it helps I don’t think I have a double cardan.

 

I personally would take mine to a driveline specialty shop. I too do all my own maintenance and am confident, but this is one where I'll leave it to the pros. Any balance issues could potentially ruin a lot of things. Diffs, Tcase, etc. If it were only the carrier bearing, I would do that. But a full rebuild, nah.

 

I had mine professionally done, new u-joints and career bearing. I supplied them with all the parts. I dropped off the truck and picked it up 2 hrs later. The told me my drive shaft was out off balance. The truck drives even better after that.

I paid $150 in parts and $225 for the labor. They said $75 of it was the remove and install of the driveshaft.

there’s an option of just dropping off the driveshaft also

 

Agree with other posters. While it is not very hard to change u-joints and CSB on our drive shafts, for the price of a shop doing it you also get a balance and the peace of mind of such a critical part being repaired correctly.

That being said, I've removed driveshafts myself and brought them to shops for repair in the past. I haven't ever brought my whole vehicle there for them to do the work.

 

Agreed. As long as you mark the flanges on the each end so that install orientation is the same as when it came out.

 

I did just the u-joints and it wasn't bad at all. Took less time than it would to drive to the shop. (I may have gotten lucky though)

 

Personally I would do it myself, and then if there were any vibration issues I'd pull it and take it to a shop for balancing if needed.

 

I think it depends on if you have time and how valuable your time is. I’d bring the shaft in and drop it off. But I also just bought a shaft off a wreck with new CB. If u-joints need to be done I’m gonna drop it off and have them replaced and balanced. If not, I’m just gonna pop it on.