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I have about 20,000 miles on my 1350 Spicer U-joints. One of my spindle carriers on the outside half-shaft failed and I have the car apart so it's an opportunity to replace the U-joints, but not sure I need to do that. Is that just good cheap insurance and worth the time and money, or just skip it given low mileage? Car has been driven pretty hard and running 430hp/480tq....
Depending on usage, you may want to replace them. We have broken solid Spicer 1350 joints in one dead hook. Depending on your car and usage, 20k hard miles for example, with the car apart, $120 in joints is cheap insurance if you do your own work.
I am curious on your statement "One of my spindle carriers on the outside half-shaft failed" By spindle carrier, I assume you are referring to the bearing support- the iron 2 leg casting that holds the axle and bearings? Those usually don't break. The axle will snap, or the bearings can fail, but the iron support that is interesting. Can you post pictures of the damage? Given your use and power, I would guess the axle failed, with odds going up if they are not GM axles but imported knockoffs that are sold on place like Ebay.
Of course, I am only speculating since I haven't seen anything and there in no explanation beyond your statement. If, however, you did break an outer axle, you may want to check the diff as well.
Thx for the reply, GTR1999. I misspoke, what I should have said is spindle flange, not spindle carrier. Picture attached should clear it up. I don't think it was power that caused the failure, I think it was lateral force vs. twisting force given how the ears sheared off the flange. The u-joint was not broken. I took off relatively hard from a dead stop and about 5 feet into that launch I hit a bit of a short 'trough' that crossed the width of the road.. I think combining the squat from launching with the compression from coming back up the back-side of the trough, put enough lateral / side force against the flange, to break the casting. Definite weakness with our Corvette IRS setups, and a reason I was looking at DragVette's 6-Link, VanSteel's axle upgrades, etc. Man, do some of those get expensive quickly....
I decided to go cheap for now and get the half-shaft loops from DragVette and just return it all back to 'stock'. I have an automatic car, but I did upgrade to the 1350 flanges and u-joints on the inner and outer Diff / half-shafts and have .095 wall 3 1/2" half-shafts. I hate knowing that I have weak links in the driveline because getting stranded really sucks, but it's just not feasible to spend $8k+ to bomb-proof the rear-end at this point and time. Hopefully the hoops will help prevent the kind of damage I experienced this time. I had to repair a big chunk of fiberglass, new shock, tons of time hammering, welding, and repainting frame and T/A parts, new spindle flange, U-Joints, etc. Not fun... Upgrades are fun, repairs are not!
You have an 80-82. I never liked those yokes but many were used. I am not a fan of those loops since the ones we had broke when the joint failed. I like those Tom had that were in the center of the shaft, not on the ends. Hopefully, you never get to find out as we did.
Did you look at the axle for twisted splines? some of the later C3 axles tended to twist but that is subjective to power and use. I would rock the wheel and check the outer bearings. If the diff is the stock one, no mods inside, check your inner axle play. The internal parts on those Dana's were smaller than the iron diff's. They had the same issues with the axles as all C3's and the cross shafts were softer. Add in questionable bearing caps and posi clutch retainers that get chewed up. I was never a fan of this diff, no surprise there, but in stock form and street use they were ok. And that is all GM wanted at the end of the run, get them through warranty with low power mostly automatic cars.
You are correct, once you get into building up an IRS it adds up fast. There is cheap and there is quality work, rarely are they the same. Some of the parts are going away, some are knockoffs that look the same but are not. I have converted a lot of 80-82 to irons but won't take in a Dana.
You have an 80-82. I never liked those yokes but many were used. I am not a fan of those loops since the ones we had broke when the joint failed. I like those Tom had that were in the center of the shaft, not on the ends. Hopefully, you never get to find out as we did.
Did you look at the axle for twisted splines? some of the later C3 axles tended to twist but that is subjective to power and use. I would rock the wheel and check the outer bearings. If the diff is the stock one, no mods inside, check your inner axle play. The internal parts on those Dana's were smaller than the iron diff's. They had the same issues with the axles as all C3's and the cross shafts were softer. Add in questionable bearing caps and posi clutch retainers that get chewed up. I was never a fan of this diff, no surprise there, but in stock form and street use they were ok. And that is all GM wanted at the end of the run, get them through warranty with low power mostly automatic cars.
You are correct, once you get into building up an IRS it adds up fast. There is cheap and there is quality work, rarely are they the same. Some of the parts are going away, some are knockoffs that look the same but are not. I have converted a lot of 80-82 to irons but won't take in a Dana.
Good luck
I have heard some say that the half-shaft loops could break upon failure, but my thought is that it can't be worse than not having one at all.. I hope that thinking is right... I'm a big fan of doing it right the first time, but timing just isn't right to spend the dough. Regarding the diff.... I shipped my original down to TracDogg and he built it up with upgraded internals, billet bearing cap, etc., so I feel good about that being stout. When I took everything apart to repair it I did check and there is no inner axle play, wheel bearing play, or twisted splines with ~20k miles on all the parts. Wish someone just made a billet 1350 outer spindle carrier even though it may just be moving the failure point to the next weakest link... Seems the only way to get better flanges is to convert everything to something like the VanSteel set-up, then you're talking new half-shafts, inner flanges, spindles, and the list goes on and on.
Replacing U-Joints
