carrier bearing difficulty? re-balance?

[FirstGen]

Just got a quote back from a good mechanic here in town and I am trying to differenciate between what I want to tackle on my own and what I should have him do. Poor boys like me

One thing he listed is that my carrier bearing and U-joints need to be replaced (LWB). I'm sure this is true.

How difficult is it to replace the carrier bearing I haven't even looked at it? He has also listed to rebalance the driveshaft along with the new bearing??? Is that nessary, wouldn't think so?

Thanks in advance

[Alex Hayley]

I did not rebalance my driveshaft when I replaced the mentioned items. However, I did not have any vibration after replacing the items. Replacing the carrier bearing is not difficult. Do a search on "carrier" in this site. There are a number of links that describe how to do this.

[67Fleetsidedream]

It all depends what tools you have available. To replace the carrier bearing you are going to have to remove the center ujoint after the carrier bearing. If you have a vice and a big hammer you can do it yourself. I would get a quote on the rebalanceing before he did it. It may be cheaper to get a new used drive shaft. It is not normally necessary to rebalance unless the drive shaft is bent or the balancing weights are gone.

[FirstGen]

I have plenty of tools, I can't imagine it being difficult but I haven't looked at it. Quote was $320 to replace bearings/u-joints and re-balance. I think I tackle it myself