Hello all,

Im in the process of changing out all my u joints on my drive shaft and half shafts.
With some struggling, choice words and perseverance, i finally got them all apart.
On one of the half shafts I noticed there’s a chip missing from one of the “ears” in the groove for the retaining clip.
I don’t remember seeing it before starting, so it must have happened while pressing out the joint.
Is this going to be an issue? The retaining clip should be able to stay in place, but looking for some advice from you guys whether it is safe to use or should I replace it?
TIA





The lighting is not the best and my phones camera stinks.
Hope these pics are better. If not, I’ll have to take some new pics and post them tomorrow.

 

Please post a better picture, with the damaged area in focus.

You can probably get by with a careful blending of the damage but a better picture will help a lot.

 

I'm far from an expert, but I'd THINK you'd be OK to use that ear as long as the retaining ring clip has plenty of "bite" area to keep everything in place. I'd guess that you'd want to ensure that the open end of the ring clip was placed to be opposite that chip/gap.

JMHO

 

Clean up the jagged edge and run it. Its fine

 

i agree, but ask Gary. GTR1999. his area of expertise.

 

Thank you all for chiming in!
I’ll definitely take a file to it to smooth out the edge.
Then, the next order of business is to protect the bores and sand blast the axles, then prime and paint.

 

After your done with sandblasting use a brake hone to clean up the all bores before assembly. Will make the reinstall so much easier.

 

Thank you for the tip, never thought of that. Ordering now

 

My half shafts and flanges are at the sandblaster now. I also never considered honing the bore area of the u-joint so I went ahead and ordered a brake hone too. Thank you PJO for the link

 

Word of caution on using a hone. The u-joint cup to bore is a press fit so be very judicious about how much material you remove as you don’t want to introduce motion between the two. All I have ever used to clean them up with is some 400 wet with WD40.

 

Correct answer. Loose bores are not good. A slight tap in with a 8oz hammer is all you need. Light coat of WD40. If the flanges are bent you won't get the clips in place if using Spicers. You have to seat the joints after install.

If the broken area is small enough you can place the open side of the clip there, if there is a defect or impact that caused it I would check it will a screwdriver to make sure its solid. If the clip comes out on the road the cap will fall out and the shaft will cause issue.

 

Point well taken.
I’ll definitely check the rest of the surrounding area with a screwdriver.
I believe it was damaged while using a ball joint press for removal. I wasn’t having much luck with the socket method, even after spraying with AeroKroil.
I did manage to bend the first flange that I tried to remove using the press, but then had a piece of 6x6 x5/16” thick angle iron cut and drilled out the holes to straighten out the flange. I then decided to use the bracket to reinforce the second flange prior to attempting to remove the u joints. Hindsight is 20/20.




Seeing that the u joint flange has the raised area on the back side, I used washers behind the flange when tightening the bolts to the bracket to avoid bending or breaking off the bolt holes.

You also mentioned Spicers.
I hear they are the best for our applications, but I purchased Moog greasable joints locally at Auto Zone.
Are the Moog quality u joints still up to the task, or is it recommended to return those and buy Spicers? Greasable or non-greasable?

Thank you!

 

Nothing inherently wrong with a Moog but the non-greasable (yes, no zerks!) Spicers are the strongest.

 

I had a weird "song" noise that fluctuated while driving on the freeway. It ended up being oversized bores on my half shaft and one flange. Lou.

 

Anything can be broken. Spicer solids I use but I have seen them sheared in half. 40 years ago I snapped a NAPA USA made zerk joint shifting at 3k RPM. I never went back to zerk joints.

 

I would have thought (in fact I posted) just the opposite by thinking it's be better to have the open end of the clip away from the broken area rather than in the broken area.

That's one of the many reasons I used Gary to rebuild my diff and steering gear - he knows what he's doing and does it well!!

Paul

 

Hi Paul
Thank you.
I think there can be two trains of thought on this, first however the edge has to be secure. Your thought of having the open end of the clip away from the opening isn't a bad thought since the clip will bridge the gap. I like to have the clip fully supported that is why I would put the opening at the gap, the rest of the clip is secure in the groove. In reality it should work either way. I also seat and stake them so in this case I would stake the edge every 90*.

 

I installed the clip as you suggested with the opening on the chipped side.

I also “seated” the u joints lightly with a hammer to get them to loosen up a bit since they were a little difficult to move at first. I’m assuming that’s what you meant by “seating” the u joints.

On the other hand, im
not certain what you meant by “staking” them. Would you care to explain what that entails, in kindergarten language for me?

Thank you!

 

After some issues, I finally got my u joints installed.

I ordered the spicers (no zerks) from Summit.
They arrived in 2 days! However, the shipping box was waaay to big for the handful of stuff I ordered, plus the u joint boxes were not sealed…..
You guessed it….2 of the u joints and 8 caps were roaming free in the shipping box, and some of the needle bearings were MIA.

Needless to say, Summit shipped out 2 more u joints. These arrived in better condition. (These 2 boxes were factory sealed)

Once I had all my new spicers accounted for, I grew cold feet about reusing my old flanges, one of which I had originally bent and straightened back out. But…..what the hell. I ordered 2 new flanges from Bair’s. The best prices I found anywhere for only $39 each.
Why not? It’s worth that not to have to take them back apart later, not to mention one of the flanges looked like a PO named Bubba to a plasma cutter to it at some point.

Anyhow, they are finally assembled! And I only had ONE cap that had a needle bearing get lazy on me during assembly. Took a little longer than the others, but got ‘er done!
Then I got a couple coats of primer and paint on them.

Thanks everyone for the words of wisdom and the encouragement!

Will keep you posted on progress.

Greg