So I'm about to replace the U-joints on my truck because it sounds like a bunch of birds are fighting underneath the truck whenever I come to a stop.
Also, when I put it in reverse, there's a loud clunk. Quick accelerations backwards reveal noisy sounds from the rear-end. Not much noise going forward though.
So I jack it up, put it on stands, and roll underneath on my creeper, twist the shaft, and I notice quite a bit of play at the differential end, no play at the tranny. Unbolted the shaft and removed it. Took like 10 minutes.
Off to Advance Auto parts, 15 miles away (closest place open on Sunday, Napa 2 blocks away is closed). Today is my lucky day, there server is down, no parts look-up, and no credit card payments.
So Advance guy looks up the parts , and brings two out. I pay my $33.xx for them and head home (great day to have the vette out, so not completely wasted). They're the heavy duty type, Neapco Brute Force. I'm happy.
Get home, and for the next 1.5 hours, I'm removing the old joints (still the originals, only got 57k miles on the truck). I only had 1 small torch to heat the caps up, wish I had an accetylen torch. Replaced both the front and the rear while I had it aprt.
Go to put the new joint on the tranny yoke, and the sucker is too long to fit inside the opening, by about 1/4". WTF????.
Well, Joe-handyman that I am, I hammered the sucker in. Next, I try to put the caps on, they're too freakin big. I tried to hammer the cap in, and ended up busting the lip on the cap, and of coarse, all the pins flew out.No way they'll fit inside the yoke opening.
So, I quick run into the house, call up Advanceautoparts.com on the Internet (thanks Al Gore) and search the part number Idiot guy gave me, and lo and behold, it's the U-joints for a Sport Addition (which is the Big wheeled, factory lift fitted (ZR?) unit).
Off to advance I go again (good thing I gassed up the Vette earlier- I probably wasted $10.00 in gas chasing back and forth). Got the correct parts this time. Different Advance guy gave me the correct parts, and chided Idiot guy who was helping another customer , "I'm cleaning up your mistake, Jesse". He ignored us. (His name was on the receipt). I remember this Jesse guy from over a year ago, so it's not like he was new to this job.
I returned 1 wrong unit, they wouldn't take back the one I busted.
So, a job that should've taken an hour max, ended up being a 4 hour job.
The moral of the story is this;
Having the computer, next time I'll make sure I have the correct p/n with me before I go to any of the parts stores (which I almost always do anyway- today I just didn't think I'd need to for some basic-cheap parts)
"Melo" and "AI". Enough said.
. No reason to attack Mike like that. People make mistakes a learn from them.
