Turn the steering wheel left and right until it stops. Turn the outer wheel by hand and check the outer cuffs for small cracks and brittle areas. If dirt and moisture get into them, it won't be long before the joint becomes scrap metal. To check the inner cuffs, lie down under the car. Then have an assistant slowly turn the wheels.
Check the fastening of the tension clamps.
When checking the protective cuffs of the drive shafts, it is also necessary to check the strength of the fastening of the outer 1 and inner hose clamps 2. The band clamps with a hole are tensioned with side cutters (arrow). To do this, bend the notch in the tension band in the form of a flattened "O", carefully press it with side cutters so that the cuff is not compressed. The drive shaft must fit tightly to the cuff.
Traces of grease on the cuff are an indisputable sign: find out the cause of the traces and eliminate it as soon as possible. Otherwise, you will soon be dealing with a destroyed drive joint. The inner joints are filled at the factory with 10 g (iB5) or 125 g (MTX-75) of special grease. A new filling of the outer joints requires 100 g, when replacing the cuff, 60 g of MoS2 grease is enough. Ford uses the SM-1C75-A or SQH-1C9004-A specifications.