Center carrier bearing

[got2haul]

My 1980 stepside short box has a factory center carrier bearing.  Currently I have the bed off the truck cleaning up and painting the back half of the frame and replacing worn out parts.  I noticed while grasping the driveshaft, I can move it up and down rather easily, and there is a lot of "free play" in the center carrier bearing.  My first thought was that it is shot, and needs to replaced, but after doing some research, I'm not sure.

How do I diagnose if the bearing needs to be replaced?  Are they pressed on?  A replacement isn't very much and I think I can replace it easily enough while the bed is off the truck.

[Blazin]

I would go find a short bed with a one piece drive shaft and swap that in.

[VileZambonie]

The carrier bearing is usually ok just the mounts deteriorate. Two piece driveshafts are much better. If the mount doesn't look split or cracked then just leave it alone. They are designed to allow the driveshaft to move.

[got2haul]

VileZambonie, you seem pretty knowledgeable on this topic.  If I post a photo of the current state of the bearing, as it's mounted on the truck, would you be able to tell much?

How do you post a picture?

[Blazin]

Why do you think they are better?
Twice as many u joints to wear out, another part to wear out the carrier bearing and or mounting rubber. I have had several trucks with two piece shafts and have had a few problems with the carrier bearing mounts failing. I could not keep one in my 64 C20, replaced it every year. Would get it out in the spring and by Aug. the rubber was ripped apart. Put a new unit in and the same the next year. After 3 years of that I had a one peice shaft made. The guy at the shop wondered why I didn't do it the first time around.

[VileZambonie]

Sure post pix just upload your images to a web host like Photobucket.com and then place the url inside the brackets like this

[ img ] your link to your pic here [ / img ]

No spaces.

Blazin, a good balanced 2 piece shaft assembly provides the smoothest and strongest of the two designs. I hear where you are coming from with more parts to break etc when it does fail but longer wheel base vehicles like my 74 GMC which has over 600HP and hopefully within the next two years will be over 1000HP can handle the torque and speed.

I'm sure there's a bazillion articles on them that you can read but I also work with a company that I do side business with that custom builds driveshafts and they recommend 2 piece on heavy duty/ high perf applications.


Here's a quick link although I didn't actually read what it says
www.rodandcustommagazine....haft_tech/

[got2haul]

And an updated pic of my truck

Edited by: roundedline at: 2/2/07 7:22 pm

[VileZambonie]

All you can really tell from the pic is that it's got some rust on it.