This can be a little tricky to do depending on what you have for tools and how good you are at working on things but the joint is held in with C clips and is a loose press fit into the yoke there are single and dobble cardan yokes the single are easyer to do because you olny need to press two caps out instead all four . So remove the drive shaft it has 4 bolts make SURE YOU MARK THE ALINGMENT OF THE SHAFT . Drive shafts are balanced like tires and will viberate if not realinged correctly. Remove the shaft from the vehicle it will slide out of the back of the transmission you will loose some trany oil out the back so make sure you refill it. If you have a vise clamp the shaft into it use wood between the shaft and the jaws so not to dent the shaft. Remove the C clpis with a small screw driver you get new ones with the new joint so if they are distroyed its not a problem.If you don't have a vise you can do this on the ground you just need a vary clean area to work on put down some clean cardboard and a 4x4 block of wood to rest the shaft on. With the clips out take a hammer and a scocket that is close to the size of the cap and drive it out if its stubbern heat the out side of the yoke with a propane torch this will expand the metal on the yoke and the cap will move in and the other side will move out and thing will fall apart . The trickyest part is putting the new one in . You need to remove the caps from the new joint . They should have greese in them already with neddle bearings that will fall out if your not careful i like to put more greese in them to act as kind of a glue to hold them in place . Slide the new caps into the yoke from the out side and carefuly fit the new joint into the caps from the inside and press the caps into the joint by hand as far as you can . Then take a C clamp that fits the cap size and finish pressing in to the stop piont . Install the new C clips make sure the caps are pressed in enough so the new clips snap into the groove in the yoke to hold them in . The new U joint may or may not have a greese fitting if it dose install it before you install the new U joint but do not try to greese it until the new joint is installed and the clips are in .Then reinstall the shaft making sure that it goes back in the same atitude it came out from to mantain the the correct balance and tighten the bolts that hold it to the carrier and you should be good for 70 or 80 thousand miles . Good luck
Testimonial: "Great thanks John. I think I will remove the drive shaft the take to an engineer. Then refit it myself."
Just google it,the whole job will come up from multiple sources on the internet with pictures.
Lift the rear end of the Explorer with a floor jack. Place jack stands underneath the rear axle, by the leaf spring perches and lower the Explorer onto the stands. Pull the floor jack out of the way. mark both ends of the shaft for reinstalation.
Crawl under the rear end and unbolt the universal joint retaining straps from the rear differential yoke.
Pull the drive shaft and universal joint away from the rear differential yoke by hand.
Remove the retaining rings that hold the universal joint into the drive shaft with needle-nose pliers.
Support the end of the drive shaft on a jack stand and place the socket extension against the universal joint cap in the drive shaft yoke. Tap the socket extension with the dead blow hammer until the universal joint cap comes out of the yoke.
Clean the sockets in the drive shaft yoke with the tip of a pocket screwdriver to remove any built up road dirt or other gunk.
Remove two of the caps from the opposite ends of the replacement universal joint. Be careful to keep the bearings in the caps.
Position the replacement universal joint in the drive shaft yoke and put the cap on the outside. Use the socket extension and dead blow hammer to tap the cap through the yoke far enough to expose the retaining ring groove. Put the retaining ring on that side with the needle-nose pliers. Repeat this for the other cap.
Move the drive shaft back up to the differential yoke, line up the new universal joint with the differential yoke and reinstall the universal joint retaining straps with the wrench. Lower the rear end off the jack stands with the floor jack.
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