2004 Lincoln LS8 Drive Shaft clunking / rattling

[Hot Rod Lincoln007]

Hi, My 04 LS8 starting making this clunking noise or rattling under the seat when starting from zero and first accelerating and then smooth out. The harder I would accelerate the worse the noise was. I took the car to the dealer and they said the center carrier bearing had deteriorated and therefor the entire drive shaft would have to be replaced.

The problem now was that ford doesn't manufacture or sell a replacement drive shaft anymore. Well they were able to locate and install a used drive shaft and it was fine at first but after a week and a half it started making the same noise although not as bad.

So now I have to bring the car back in but I guess my question here is would it be necessary to change the entire drive shaft for a warn out center carrier bearing?

 

[DEWing-it]

Yes, it is possible to replace the carrier bearing but it does require the bearing to be pulled with a large gear puller and then pressed back on. The part is still listed as available. (See Below) The LS driveshaft cannot be otherwise rebuilt because the u-joint is staked in place similar to other makes like BMW. The shafts have to be indexed (marked) to make sure that the parts go back together the same way they came apart in order to make sure that the shaft stays balanced. Sounds like your dealer was taking the easy way out...less labor or maybe there was concern about your old u-joint.

While a new shaft may not be in the dealer's parts chain, Ford Parts Giant still shows them available for V8 versions only. While their listings are not foolproof, if it is listed, there's about a 90% chance they can get it. You'll pay close to $600.00 though. They also list the bearing at $102.33.
http://fordpartsgiant.com