reesehunter32@hotmail.com

I recently had a u joint failure on the passenger side rear wheel. It destroyed the halfshaft and also required the yoke to be replaced. I ordered the replacement parts and had difficulty putting the new halfshaft in, as it was an extremely tight fit. It was an OEM replacement halfshaft. When the job was completed and the rear wheel was put back on, it seemed as if it had an extreme tow out. The car now crabwalks down the road rather than driving straight. It seems as if the entire wheel hub assembly is twisted. I am suspect to the halfshaft (it is an OEM part) due to the level of tightness of the fit. A prybar was used several times in order to get the halfshaft in. The driver side of the car is perfectly fine. I've attached images of the wheel after the new parts were installed. Any advise/input would be greatly appreciated!

65Z01

Have a good alignment give it a 4-wheel to see if it will come into spec.

billschroeder5842

PRYBAR?

Yikes!!!! That should be your first indicator that something is off.

Since you suspect the half shaft and the driver side fits, try swapping them. If the swap fits (sans pry bar) you have a jacked up half shaft. If the shaft does not fit easily you may have some damage to your suspension causing the tight fit.

Also, check the Yoke you replace for proper seating as a little off will make the half shaft fit not properly.. You have more to check before a needed alignment

confab

Is it just the angle of the pic, or is that wheel sitting way, way back in the well?

reesehunter32@hotmail.com

Thank you all for the input I'm definitely going to try swapping them, how the pictures look is how the tire is sitting

kael

Definitely an alignment, new parts are never quite identical to the old, especially from a different manufacturer, like say wider front wheel hubs from Timken.

Next fun part, getting an alignment. Good luck!! PITA to find anyone decent let alone actually get it done right in a quick fashion. Don't just ask if someone will do a C4, make them describe HOW they will do it. I had a local place tell me, oh sure, we do C4 alignments. They took 8 hours, charged me an extra $200 bucks and failed to get it right anyway. Why?

1. I had custom specs.
2. They had a computer system that only told them the factor and changes to make. As in, the tech was guessing the whole time.
3. I told them, twice, a C4 HAS to be driven around after the alignment to settle the changes. Nope.
4. They freaked out because looking at the car on the alignment track seemed to change the measurements!! NO ****, see #3.
5. The final specs were off, like 2 degrees camber off, again due to #3.

So, ask and chase, hope you find someone. Me, I ended up doing myself. And still working on it, I'm too stingy to buy expensive measuring tools.

xrav22

I find it much easier to lift the rear and remove the shock and spring retainer nut , along with the sway bar nut to get all the movement you need to pull and place the shaft easily.
It takes a little longer but prybar is not needed. Good Luck

jv9999

It looks to me like it's way more than alignment. Are you sure the broken half shaft didn't bend something? The pry bar, while not the correct method, shouldn't have thrown something that far off. I'd have a closer look and maybe take some measurements of both sides.

hcbph

I'm going to just make a comment here. On the reference to a prybar, having done the u-joints in my 86 including pulling the half-shafts, If you just pulled the spring I can see where you'd need something like a prybar to get the old shaft out or a new one in (if you were lucky). If on the other hand you pulled the spring & camber rod and still needed a prybar then something I would suspect was still wrong. Unbolting the spring and unhooking the camber rod and I was able to pull out the knuckle enough to get the half shaft out, otherwise no.

On the question of a 4 wheel alignment, find someone that knows what they're doing. Happens I put a Banski suspension kit under my car. Not every place I talked to I'd trust to align it. I happened to find someone that new the kit, the car and could talk intelligent on what needed to be done. He got the job.

MatthewMiller

Please ignore any suggestions to get an alignment!!! Also, do not drive the car anymore!!! As has been said, you should not need a prybar to replace the halfshaft. Something is really, really wrong. I just did this job on Saturday on my car in about one hour (including replacing one u-joint on the shaft). You should never need a prybar to put the halfshaft in, especially if you didn't need one to remove the old one. Remember that the halfshaft is also your upper control arm. Either your halfshaft or the new yoke is too long, and it's causing massive alignment problems. In addition to way too much positive camber, it's causing the upright to rotate around the steering arm where the toe link connects, which is why the wheel/tire is sitting so far back in the wheel well. No doubt you have a metric ****-ton of toe out, too.

Get the whole back of the car up in the air on jack stands. Get under there and measure the lengths of the halfshaft and yoke you didn't replace and compare them to the ones you did replace. One of those things will not be like the other. That must be corrected before you drive any more, and certainly before you spend time and money for an alignment.