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half shaft u joint

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Old Jul 4, 2009 | 12:12 PM
  #1  
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Default half shaft u joint

I am replacing the rear suspension spring on our 81 and noticed the half shaft u joints have a little bit of slop. What is the spicer number for these u joints? The car is a manual if it makes any differance. Sorry for being so basic we just bought the car a couple weeks ago and we are just begining to figure out all of the "in's and out's" of it. thanks Al
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Old Jul 4, 2009 | 12:31 PM
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Go up top any auto parts store and they can look up the right u joint for you. If your doing them you might as well do all of them. Chances are they are all original. Their are six on the car, two on the drive shaft and two on each half shaft. Its not that bad of a job.
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Old Jul 4, 2009 | 12:39 PM
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I would rather use the spicer joint rather than the one commonly found at say Napa. I've been into off road for nearly 20 years and just got bored with it so we started with a basic car to play with. I am thinking the joint is a spicer 1350 or 1330 by the looks of the size.
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Old Jul 4, 2009 | 12:42 PM
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Whatever floats your boat. I have been using the brute force U joints, and they are pretty solid. They even come with a warrantee.
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Old Jul 4, 2009 | 12:54 PM
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never hear of Brute Force, are they a permaseal joint or one whith a zerk? I have found in the off road using a permaseal, (no zerk fitting) they last much longer especially running in alot of water ect. Using the spicer joints, they have a larger cross piece with more but smaller diamiter needles, conversley the basic joint at Napa has a small cross piece and larger needles. I beleive with a larger cross piece, small needles you have more contact per needle and can handle much more load. In fact in some of our front axle configurations we ran a solid cap and cross piece, no needles at all. every one of these applications would have much higher stress than would ever be applied to the rear of a corvette due to gearing and much higher torque output. I will look at the Brute Force joint, do you know the specific part number? Al
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Old Jul 4, 2009 | 12:56 PM
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Spicer 5-799X

Do all four at the same time. Order the set from Duntov Motorsports.

My personal opinion:
Do not put in serviceable u-joints. Who likes grease being slung all under the suspension. Just attracts dirt and is one more thing that has to be done, isn't worth the little amount of monetary difference.
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Old Jul 4, 2009 | 01:25 PM
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Yes Sir; You might want to give Van Steel a look, they have some pretty awesome Parts. www.vansteel.com Have a great 4th Gene
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Old Jul 4, 2009 | 02:46 PM
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Originally Posted by Goody
Spicer 5-799X

Do all four at the same time. Order the set from Duntov Motorsports.

My personal opinion:
Do not put in serviceable u-joints. Who likes grease being slung all under the suspension. Just attracts dirt and is one more thing that has to be done, isn't worth the little amount of monetary difference.
Did the factory use zerk or permaseal?

-W (just curious)
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Old Jul 4, 2009 | 03:51 PM
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do not use the ones with the zerk fittings. it weakens the u-joint. I have a 454/auto and have been using AC/Delco parts. No problems.
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Old Jul 4, 2009 | 06:39 PM
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Originally Posted by Goody
Spicer 5-799X

Do all four at the same time. Order the set from Duntov Motorsports.

My personal opinion:
Do not put in serviceable u-joints. Who likes grease being slung all under the suspension. Just attracts dirt and is one more thing that has to be done, isn't worth the little amount of monetary difference.

Spicer u-joints are the only type I use in my shop. I will not install any other brand ...PERIOD. When you look at the spicer and compare it to others...you can CLEARLY see the difference in design. In my opinion...it is a much better U-joint. I give a 5 year / 50,000 mile guarantee on the Spicers that I sell and install. And believe me, they last longer than 50,000 miles or I would not be giving that good of a guarantee.

But to each his or her own.

Also GM never installed a U-joint with zerk grease fitting in the U-joints. In a Corvette that is, other models...that I do not know about or care about.
"DUB"
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Old Jul 5, 2009 | 12:15 AM
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A 4 speed 81 should have the Larger U-joint of the two avalable for that Year. However it may or may not. Your probably going to pull one out and measure it to be certain.
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Old Jul 5, 2009 | 09:28 AM
  #12  
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Originally Posted by Gale Banks 80'
A 4 speed 81 should have the Larger U-joint of the two avalable for that Year. However it may or may not. Your probably going to pull one out and measure it to be certain.

One easy way to check if you DO have the larger U-joints for the 80-82 rear half shafts are the bolts that are used for the half shafts are inverted torx and are larger in diameter than the bolts that hold on the driveshaft to the yoke and front of the differential. IF you have the 12-point bolts or hex head bolts that are the same size as the driveshaft, you have the smaller joints. I have seen it both ways. And if rear end work is being overhauled, I changed the side yokes out of the differential to the larger designed U-joint yoke. And also replaced the bearing flanges to the same design for the larger U-joint.
"DUB"
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Old Jul 5, 2009 | 10:32 PM
  #13  
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Originally Posted by Clams Canino
Did the factory use zerk or permaseal?

-W (just curious)
As GrandMasterCorvette already posted, no zerk from the factory.

I would only install an anything brand if I was stuck in the middle of nowhere and it was all they had in stock. I would change them later at a more convienent time to Spicer joints.
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Old Jul 6, 2009 | 08:49 AM
  #14  
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Like I was saying, the Spicer joints which are a permaseal, are much stronger than the typical cross referance joint. I have been using the spicer joints on most of my off road applications, If the joint is a 5-799x this is the same joint used in my front axles of my 4X4's.
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