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1978 L48 TH350. Removed driveshaft. Replaced the extension housing bushing, seal, and giant oring to reduce slip joint wobble . While there, I noticed the u joints binding a bit. Bought new spicer 1330x non greasables. Were a little reluctant to go into the shaft yokes and are still somewhat stiff. Could not get the shaft to line up with either the companion yoke or the slip yoke. On the bench the cross shaft and cups measure 3.661” with a small clamping force on them The companion yoke measures 3.621” while the Spicer marked slip yoke measures 3.625”. So it appears i have about 0.003” mismatch. Anyone else solved this problem?
Went back to the order i used for the ujoints. There it states the cap to cap dimension as 3.625” so in theory it matches the slip yoke. Odd that i cannot compress the ujoint down to that dimension. Still puzzled.
Sounds to me like when you were installing the u joint one of the needle bearing fell out and is lying flat inside the bottom of the cup preventing the cup from sliding all the way down.
Pull the cups and look for a needle bearing out of place.
I can't remember any details but there was a guy on You tube that did a video and he talked about the u joint size problem he found but that's all I got for you.Maybe you can find that video.I will have a look as well.
Because of the way U-joint caps sometimes get hammered out, over the years, the yokes could be slightly compressed.
This is particularly a problem with the H/S outer flanges, which are extremely thin, and bend easily. I was able to widen/straighten mine ~10 thou.
But the same can happen to D/S yokes if they are handled roughly as well.
I suggest measuring inside the bores, c-clip groove to c-clip groove. And use a small straight edge inside the bores to see if the bores are no longer parallel, then the caps bind.
IIRC the newer Spicer inner seals are teflon, and extremely tight, they need to be compressed a little bit.
From OP: Cup bores on driveshaft seem parallel. No gaps when applying straight edge. Measured from snap ring to snap ring=3-19/32” vs standard ujoint of 3-5/8”. hope this is enough. Waiting on ujoints to be delivered. Will try installing them soon.
Returned the Spicers and bought the ZIP product (Moog). When compressed with a C clamp the cross shaft and bearing cups measure 3.621” so it should fit in both the slip yoke and companion yoke. I also double checked the bearing diameters and they are good. Will press in the bearing cups at work on Tuesday. Hopefully i can get the necessary free play of 0.002” by using thinner snap rings
Still puzzled. Can you all confirm what I am thinking: Shouldn’t the internal dimension between the seated snap rings be the same as the bearing cap to bearing cap dimension? Near as i can measure the driveshaft yokes are only 3-19/32” whereas the u joint itself is 3-5/8” thus putting a huge pre load on those trunnions. Help me out please
You don't want a crush fit for sure.Your saying about a 30 thou. interference fit ,doesn't sound right if your measurement is dead on.I'd just put them in if you throw them in the freezer first go a lot easier and see what you end up with.
Did you 'bend' the yoke ends when you pressed the caps "out" or "in"? It is easy to damage the yoke if you don't support it properly during press-out/in.
7T1–I was very careful to support the yoke ears during pressing out and in both. I also checked the ears for parallel before pressing in the new joint. I think the bottom line is the snap ring to snap ring dimension is just too small (3-19/32”) for a 1330 joint (3-5/8”). The joint is in now but very stiff even with the thinnest snap rings in the kit. Next to try is reducing the the thickness of some spare snap rings to gain some axial play. Let you know if it works.
I wound up with 2 bent yokes when I rebuilt 2 sets of half-shafts.
Mine were bent .030" inward, and were too tight.
With very careful bending I was able to straighten them.
Pics and measurements attached. Maybe those will help. https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-rescue-9.html
post # 162
Thanks for the info leigh. I have some success to report. Finally got all 4 driveshaft snap rings to seat. I had to use a 2 jaw gear puller to pull the caps a smidge out from where they were pressed in too far. (Pulled on the other two arms of the cross.).Once the cross was able to rotate freely without excess axial play,I sanded down snap rings to 0.054” and that allowed them to easily snap into place. I was able to sand them by boring a shallow 1.25” hole with a Forstner bit in a 2x2 piece of hardwood 6” long. Put a piece of double sided tape in the recess to hold the snap ring secure. Sanded on a 60 grit wheel using a miter gauge as a way to keep the hardwood perpendicular to the wheel. Rotated the wood block frequently to make sure everything was square. Sand, measure, sand, measure until i got the thickness i needed. Now both joints are in and moving freely with next to no axial play. Now comes the chore of getting it back in the car!
Drive shaft back in and easier than expected. Bolted diff end first then slip yoke. This job is DONE. Now i have another problem but requires a new thread.
Driveshaft woes
