I have a bad u joint on the rear part of my 05 outback base 5 mt driveshaft. I know they are supposedly not serviceable, and the solution would be to replace the entire driveshaft. The outer cups are staked in. Has anyone had a shop in MN that was able to repair the driveshaft by installing a replacement u joint? Was it a lasting repair or did it fail again. Dorman makes one for an 06-09 outback with a 5 mt but doesn’t list the 05. They do list the same number Subaru does. Does anyone have any experience with their driveshafts? I’ve had more issues with this winter beater than the sti that I want to keep away from the salt.
I can't speak to any shops in the cities. There are 2 up here in Duluth that do it regularly, so I assume it's not uncommon....AFAIK, Subaru has used the same Ujoint part, installed in the same basic method from the '70s until at least 2007 or so, so they should be able to tell you pretty quickly if they're familiar with it. I've done several. Although they're the same basic design and outer dimensions, it seems these joints are not sealed against the road grime like the older ones. Between the original shafts in our 2 Outbacks, and 3 junkyard shafts, they ALL had notchy and/or sloppy joints. I tried drilling and tapping for grease fittings to make the best used one greaseable, which bought me 6 months of use, or so (with regular greasing). I replaced both joints in our '04 VDC, and the rear in my '00 beater (would have done both, but my dremel died....). I've put about 10k miles on the '04 since then, and only about 2k on the '00, so it's early yet, but they're both a huge imrovement. Interestingly the new joints had probably 1/3 longer needle bearings, which makes me very optimistic about the longevity. And they're greaseable, and held in with a traditional snap ring, so replacing them again will be much easier should I need to. Not a particularly difficult job, but DEFINITELY requires a press and a Dremel. https://mnsubaru.com/threads/staked-in-ujoint-replacement-how-to.53806/
I installed the autozone ujoint in the driveshaft myself latest night. Got the driveshaft in this morning. Thanks for the link to the write up on it! Problem fixed economically. I believe an accountant designed the oe ujoint installation.
