Hi. I have a B2000 '86 long bed, 190000mls.
I love this truck and I own it now for 6 years and never had any problems with it. But recently when I put my SixPack camper on it it makes this weird noise somewhere under the bed, most likely where the drive shaft is. It comes and goes but it's getting louder. When I take the camper off it shows up only sometimes. A friend of mine told me it could be the u-joints... ? The noise sounds like someone is hitting a screwdriver on metal or so... ding ding ding... ;-)
Anyone with the same experience? :-) Thanks for your help!!!

 

U-joints are the most likely...You basically have a 4 stubs riding inside 4 caps with a ton of roller bearings running around them. They do fail over time (especially if you've never greased them)

Not that hard of a fix with some basic tools though.

 

...thank you very much! sstlaure

 

Same occured to me and was the middle joint, I have a 92 and a 88 standard cab both one manual and the other automatic and both trucks have a two piece driveshaft with 3 joints and I have to replace the middle joint for both trucks, these joint have to be replaced by proffesionals because of the joint type used.

 

So long as you have the right tools, any garage mechanic should be able to change these out (no professional needed)...If one goes, the others won't be far behind. You'd do yourself a favor by replacing all of the joints in that driveshaft while you have it out. The hardest part is usually pressing out the bearing caps from the collar. You can get loaner tools from a local autoparts store...I typically use some giant C-clamps, a couple of sockets (one sized just smaller than the outer diameter of the bearing cap to push against, and 1 sized with the inside larger than the OD of the bearing cap that is used on the opposite side to apply pressure to the collar, yet it still lets the bearing cap press out.)

Do you have some kind of service manual to work from?

Babyhuey, could you post a pic of the joint we're talking about from the tech manuals?

 

I'm going tomorrow to my car mechanic and talk to him about it... I'll let you know what's going on

 

i had this problem a year ago it was the drive shaft suport bearing. i went around to part stores looking for one and found out that its a dealer part and i wasnt going to pay there price for one. so all i did was pull it out and pack the bearing with alot of greese, then put it all back together and i havnt had a problem since.