I plan on putting new u-joints in my half shafts and was wondering if anyone has run into trouble with this. Do any of you have any information or suggestions on doing this or if there is anything I need to do to make this a litte easier. I will post pics of car and upgrades when I git my kid to show me how.

 

give this a read

http://www.corvettemagazine.com/tech...placement.html

Todd

 

thanks that is some great info. a local shop wanted 350 bucks to do the job but I think I can do it myself. seems like everyone wants to break it off in your backside when you say corvette.

 

This article does not discuss the nightmare of pressing out the ujoint from the wheel spindle ujoint flange that bolts to the axle shaft...
you will need to bolt the 2 together or build yourself a tool to keep it from bending as you press in and out the ujoint... believe me it took twice as much time to do this... there are many good ideas on this forum that discusses this... do a search... good luck..

 

you can buy this tool, or what I did was just bolt the 2 together with one rotated 90 degrees from the other.. this gave them the mutual support so it would not bend in the press...

http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...6&dept_id=1100

 

you do have to consider the "Corvette Tax" when you go to a shop.

 

You can do it. Some guys do this with their bench vise and some large sockets; I used a small hydraulic press. If you have a grinder, put a cut-off wheel in it and cut out the crosses in the differential side of the half-shaft and just press the caps through. The flange side is tricky, they will bend. I got them out by pressing out the u-joints from the half-shaft yokes in the normal way, leaving the u-joints in the flanges. Then I cut out the crosses, and used a large c-clamp and a small socket in the press:



This way you don't put any stress on an unsupported part of the flange. Since I am doing a complete rear end rebuild, I had the trailing arms apart and could bolt the half-shaft flanges to the spindle flanges for u-joint installation; the spindle flanges are really stout and won't let the half-shaft flanges bend. Bolting the two half-shaft flanges together at 90 degrees to one another should work fine though. One more thing, if you are going to use Spicer solid u-joints, you will have to grind a little on one side of the half shaft yokes or the crosses won't fit, they are a little too long. Oil the yokes and u-joint caps for installation.

Just my 2c, but if you don't already have them, you could buy top of the line u-joints, a small press, and a grinder, and even one of those flange support blocks, and still come out way ahead of $350, plus you'll have the tools to keep and you'll know it's done right.

 

Once you get some significant press load on the joint that you are removing, rap the side of it with a medium sized hammer. That 'shock' load will cause any corrosion to break up and allow the joint to start moving. Otherwise, you could put 2-3 times that load and it still might not move. Installing them is the easy part.

 

Burn them out with a torch and get on with cleaning the shafts. When new they were easy to put in, when old, No. Make your job easier by preparing the surfaces. Much easier and saves buying more U joints ...

 

This is the best advice here. Burn them out,bolt the flange on a plate and clean the bores. I use only Spicer solids and never use a press. Look up my thread it will show the whole job,if you can't find it PM me and I'll get you the link.

 

Kelly, when you say $350 does that include taking them in and out of the corvette? I cant imagine any driveshaft shop in the world charging that much for just replacing the joints.

I would find your local drive shaft shop if you were just using a regular mechanic and he gave you that price. Top quality Spicer u-joints should run about $25-30 each and another $10-12 each to install them puts you at around $150ish done, and you dont have to worry about tweaking the flanges or getting a joint bound up in one of the tube yokes.

Some jobs are better done by someone that knows exactly what they are doing.

bigredbrad

 

Had mine done at the local Carquest machine shop

They handle 650hp so far

About $150 parts and labor

 

it is hard to believe such a small price... 4 spicer ujoints, then they will have a markup on the ujoints up to probably 30 each... so 4 joints will probably be 120$ right there.. then they have to remove the half shafts, getting both of them out and back in is an hour of labor at 65 per hour minimum.. now they can do the ujoints at about 1 hour labor.. I really don't see anybody doing them for less than 250..

unless you take the parts directly to the shop..

I used to be a machanic back in the hippie days and when customers brought in their own parts and asked us to just charge labor, then my boss would usually just laugh at them.. he would not accept the liability...it was funny, he would say that he compared that to taking over some bacon and eggs to IHOP and asking them to fry them up for him...

don't forget the french locks, re-torquing to specs, dropping and replacing the strut rods, making sure they mark them so they don't try to hit you with a 80$ rear allignment...
it can easilly hit 350$ to do it right and guaranteed...

I wouldn't do it for 150$.. its a day of work for me. sure there are efficiencies that would lower the time spent

 

Joe, I dont think the OP ever replied back to my question of if the $350 was to REMOVE the half shafts from the Corvette AND new u-joints, or if that was just the price to replace the u-joints after he had removed the half shafts himself.

IF the shop was quoting him $350 for parts and labor including the labor to remove them from the Corvette, then i dont think $350 is bad. Your analysis of the labor is accurate. I agree, I would not install a customers parts, and I was not suggesting he buy u-joints and take them to be installed. My quote of $25 - $30 is what I think a driveshaft or machine shop would charge for them in a box, and then add a little more for labor. My price of $150 ish should replace the joints if you carry the half shafts into the shop. Your adding the additional $125-150 labor for taking the shafts in and out of the car is about right, so we are back to the $300-350 range that he said from the start.

Maybe Kelly will reply back with what the quote covered.

bigredbrad

 

Until you can make this statement I would recomend not attempting any U-joint repairs. Presses ruin more parts than youi can imagine and will normally lead to early failure of the joints. If you cannot get it done without using a press, the joints are already dead

 

It was 350 labor plus parts, I done the job myself yesterday using the advice some of you gave using a vice to press them in. Thanks for all the input, I have learned alot about my car from the forum. Its great to know there are a lot of great guys out there willing to share their knowhow with the rest of us. I am sure I will have a lot more to ask in the future. thanks again

 

Spoken like a true driveshaft man! I agree with you 100% on that statement. I have probably replaced over 4000 ujoints and have not "pressed" one of them in or out yet!

I can tell you I have fixed a bunch of screwups by people that have done it at home though...


bigredbrad

 

Sorry if this is obvious, but what kind of damage can the press do? It's too late for me, my joints are all done, but I'd like to know. I just thought that enough force is enough force, whether it's coming from a press, vice, hammer or whatever.

I don't have a torch capable of cutting u-joint crosses out, so where I couldn't cut with a wheel (flange sides) I pressed them out of the half shaft. I was careful, especially on the install. The Spicers went in smoothly, I pressed the second cap(s) on until the ring on the opposite side just started to deflect, then seated the last ring and tapped both sides a few times. The joints feel great, much better than the old ones, though the flanges move more stiffly than the half-shafts.

Have I cobbed my joints somehow?


--Chris

 

i think you can use a press if you are careful not to use tons and tons of force, if it don't slide in easilly, then something is wrong and don't force it.. besides, my vise jaws will not open far enough...

 

If you are interested in doing this yourself we sell both the axles and spicer U-Joints

Corvette Half Axles
1963 - 1979
Greaseable List $165.00 Your price $95.00 +S&H
Spicer Solid List $195.00 Your price $120.00 +S&H
Add The Flange List $81.42 Your price $40.71


Some of your U-Joints are online here

If you don't see the U-Joint you need give us a call 630-513-9292
As you can see from our prices we seem to beat everyone that we've come across.