U-Joint clip from factory

[Scotty33]

Hey all, sorry if this is the wrong area. 2008 Suburban 4WD here and I bent this weird clip on my u-joint, curious if I need to replace u-joint or not? I have 4 u-joints and only the one on the front diff has it. Very thin metal that I can’t imagine does much. New ones don’t come with it. What’s this things purpose? Can I just pull it and forget it? Never seen one of them before anyway.

 

Thanks guys!

[CamGTP]

I believe it's just there for assembly on the factory line. Those u-joints are nylon locked anyway, they won't come loose until you melt that out.

[kickass audio]

Is that clip from the rubber dust seal area? If so it is there to help hold the rubber dust seal on and with it missing it will sling grease out and eventually fail the u-joint. If it's just the c-clip that holds in the u-joint caps (I don't think it is but it's possible since i'm not sure if the caps that are bolted on have inner locking holding clips and the ones in the ear of the driveshaft/yoke are as Cam mentioned and are held in with nylon that needs to be melted to get them pressed out) then you will be fine so long as the bolts holding the ears on are tight.