I am perplexed on what should be a simple job. A while ago I changed out the U-joints in the driveshaft chasing a vibration at highway speeds. I remember at the time the ujoints seemed to tight. It seemed like the ujoint posts were pressing against the caps. It moved way to hard, but I put it back in anyway. Well it still vibrated.

One of my jobs this winter was to take the driveshaft down and have it balanced. When I got it down it was obvious there was something wrong with the joints. Both of them move very tight and they both had obvious notchiness. I pressed the ujoints out expecting a crushed needle bearing, but as soon as it was released, the bearings move smoothly. No crushed bearings. I am back to the Ujoint posts were pressed against the caps.

On the ends of the drive shaft is the lettering CAN and Spicer 021A and F2-28-179.

I measured the distance from the outside of the retainer ring groves and both sides of the drive shafts and they are 3.348in (or at least both are 3.34). I measured the old ujoint and it is 3.24in. the retainer rings are 0.058. So when I add two retainer rings (0.116) with the ujoint (3.24) the total length is 3.356 -- 8 thousands to large.

What am I doing wrong -- there does not seem to be any damage or bending to the Drive shaft

 

Add the cost up of replacing joints etc headache. compare to a new shaft about 200 bucks. I was having issues with cheap joints.

 

I don't know how you pressed out the old joint or installed the new one. But, it is quite common for someone using a press without stabilizing the yoke to bend the yoke ends a bit and put the new joint in a bind.

I would suggest that you just have the place balancing the driveshaft to check it out and/or correct any joint/assembly issue while they have it.

 

If the newly pressed joints were tight, a smack with a hammer to the yoke usualy freed them up. Sounds bubba (because it is) but thats what happend in a lot of cases.

 

yup
need to inspect the tightness and look at the caps in relation to the
grooves.
a little tapping to straighten the unit is a good thing/

 

Its been a while but I believe the heavy duty universals I installed had 2 different thickness snap rings.

 

I believe the post immediately above is correct. If you got 'extra' snaprings with the joints, they may be different thicknesses for a purpose.

Of course, there were no instructions to tell you that....

 

Thanks for all the feedback.

I broke down and bought two Spicer 5-1310X U-joints and they pressed in perfectly -- like they were designed for it!.

They seem tight, but move back and forth very smoothly. The old set were very tight and very notchy.

Not sure where I got the last set from, I guess I could blame it on cheap chinese bearings.

I will let you know if the vibration goes away when the car gets back on the road, but that wont be till spring -- and a new radiator, new ball joints, bushings, front shocks, and a brake rebuild on one side. Been a busy winter to do list.