1987 300td drive axle rebuild or replacement
 

I found the UV joint is bad but it is staked in and not serviceable. Does anyone know a place to source a new shaft or a rebuilder in the south east?

Ultra Violet (UV) joint? Does the ghost of Andy Warhol know about this?

Do you want an axle shaft, aka half shaft, or do you want a drive shaft, aka propeller shaft?

I see now my post was a little rushed and confusing….

My drive shaft needs to be rebuilt. The universal joint is shot.

I don't have the same year and model but in the thread below is what I did. As mentioned in that thread there is also an older thread that I saw.

Don't know if your U-joint would be the same size or not. From what research I did the U-joint on my 84 /w123 300D is the same as the one that goes backwards to the 1960's. Mercedes kept the same part.

The short story is I changed the U-joint on mine and hit as served me since that time.

I answered a similar post over on benzworld and I looked up the cost of the same U-joint I used, and they are around $30

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/293976-drive-shaft-u-joint-staked-crimped-place-now-what-do.html

It is unfortunate that there is no tool set to do this job. Instead of grinding off the stakes which in theory should change the balance what is needed is a swaging tool that squashes the staked metal bac into place or at least most of the metal. If that was possible it would preserve the balance.

There is another tool called a burnishing tool that has multiple rollers that expands and also would do the same to form the metal back to where it came from.

Other vehicles with staked U-joints have kits with a cutter to cut the stakes out.

See attached picture.