how hard is it?

Requires special tool. If ya don't have it, you wont get very far. If you do, I suggest that you lubricate the threads for the swing arm bolts with some nut and bolt penetrent a few days before you work on it. Mine had alot of mud and crud in when I went to loosen the bolts. If you got the tool, its not that hard. The tool is a spanner wrench. A buddy of mine had one that he had made many years ago. Apparently the swingarm bolts are the same as when he used to work on his shaft driven honda three wheelers back in the day.

THANKS ill try and find one i know im gonna need it sooner or later. does the swing arm have to come to change the u joint or does takeing it of make it easier.

it can be done with the swing arm on or off. It is easier to do with the swing arm/rearend off as a complete unit. You will need a 17mm allen socket, the spanner wrench is not needed to take it apart. when putting it back together you can use a hammer and punch to lock down the spanner nut. If the swing arm bearings need to be changed, they can be a pain sometimes.
If you remove the swing arm and rear end as a unit, the only thing that needs to be removed is the brake cables, swing arm boot of course and the vent lines on the brakes and diff. Its not to bad of a job.

Did the ujoint break? if so the swing arm will need to be removed anyway so the output shaft can be checked to make sure it isn't bent.

not yet. nock on wood. im going to put a 450 u joint in every one seems to be haveing good luck with them, even though they are the same part #as the 500s i havent seen them break to this point. should i wait till mine breaks then replace it.

If your waiting on it to break, more than likely the output shalf will be bent as well if it ever happens. I haven't compaired the two either, so I'am not for sure on the difference.

to just change out the u-joint you can remove the rearend from the swingarm and slid the new u-joint up the tube with the driveshalf. you will just have to undo the boot to help align it on the output shalf. it is alittle tricky, but I have done it many times.

im prob gonna change it ive had the bike over a year and with mud, water , lift and rideing style its prob time to any way, just in case.
thanks for all your input.

If you use the hammer and punch, I would make sure that you lube it up with nut and bolt penetrent a few days before you do it. Mine was not easy to get out with the proper tools.

I think the only line that I had to remove the vent line. Its been a few months since I broke it, so I'm kinda hazy on the process. I had the bike on jack stands, and the axle on a floor jack. When I took the bolts loose, I had a buddy pull the swing arm away from the bike just enough to get to the joint. The brake lines were still hooked up. I replaced the joint and put it back together. Be careful, one the swingarm bearings fell out on me and I ran the swingarm bolt all the way in before I realized something was wrong. I took the whole thing back apart because I couldn't figure out why I had slack in it. Then I found the bearing under the floor jack. Hope this helps.

to remove the side with the lock nut i just put in my trusty 17mm hex key socket and used a 30" breaker bar with a pipe.it screwed right on out.It actually unscrewed easier than the other side without the jam nut.reason being is that the side without the jam nut gets bottomed out to seat in the frame and the other side is just screwed in then "locked" with the spanner nut.I think it's easier and less time consuming to just drop the swingarm off than to strip the whole housing down and go that route.

THANKS for all the input, im gonna drop the swing arm and replace the bearins while i got it apart. thanks.

If it aint broke, dont fix it!

QUOTE ("Robb":ntnl6ufu)

If it aint broke, dont fix it!

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right on.

i get the hent, ill take yalls advice ill wait till it breaks.

QUOTE ("Vaughn":1p1jzjte)

i get the hent, ill take yalls advice ill wait till it breaks.

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do it now while you have the chance if it breaks while riding it will be ugly shaft will bend and u will cry

look whos alive and well . nice to hear from ya danno

LOL, hey Vaughn, 7 months or so later and look what happened

so lets talk u-joints / output shafts shall we

mainly...who is gonna fix mine

came across this tidbit of info from highlifter regarding the output shaft:

QUOTE

on the 500 foreman u dont have to split the cases pull the swingarm and the back crankcase off the motor and some stuff off the motor and the shaft will pull out put the new one in

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whats the concensus?