Do-it-yourself Universal Joint Repl. article. ??

[Lilleyvanilli]

I know this is for an e30, but will be similar for our cars. I could not attach, so I'm copy/pasting. Send your feedback/thoughts?

Those of you that have sent off drive shafts... what did the ends of your universal joints look like (how did the place secure them once reinstalled?)

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Ok guys, I got the clunk and slack fixed! Not without toil mind you but none the less! The culprit was a FUBAR'ed rear u-joint. It was causing a severe vibration, clunking, clanking, and lots of slack in the drive train! You should have seen this thing! It had one cap that was totaly busted and had no bearings left, much less grease! The other were still intact but none of them had any grease left! The T was actually tapered from wear! Anyhow I bought a new u-joint from Autohauzaz.com despite all the things I found on this and other forums about how they are unserviceable! I'm proud to anounce that this is NOT TRUE! Albeit they are considerably more difficult to service than your traditional types! All I had to do was this:

1. Remove drive shaft. Make corresponding marks to note the relationship between the pieces of the shaft.

2. Obtain a good carbide burr and die grinder!

- This is to remove the small "stamped" indentions that are retaining the caps. Go ahead and do all of them while your at it, no shortcuts. (I tried)

3. Grind off stampings with the burr. Carefully! And try to remove as little as absolutely necessary.

4. Get a good drift or punch and a ball peen hammer.

5. Get a large nut or socket bigger than the cap but smaller than the yoke of the joint so as to allow the cap to be driven down through the nut or socket from the opposite end of the joint.

6. Use the drift and hammer to drive one of the caps attached to the shaft part of the joint not the end that goes to the diff so as to allow that end to move when driving the cap out.

7. The cap will protrude from the outside of the shaft about a 1/4".

8. Get a chisle.

9. Use chisle corner to drive a dent into the protruding cap. Then proceed to drive against that dent with the drift or the chisle on opposite sides of the cap untill it comes out!

10. Flip the shaft 180degrees and drive on the exposed end that you just removed the cap from in order to remove the opposite cap.

11. Once the opposite cap has been driven out that 1/4" then you can remove the differential end of the shaft from the joint! Now your half way there!

12. Do the same thing on the remaining two caps!

13. Now assuming that you have already obtained a new joint, being very careful not to POP them off, walk the caps off of your new joint without dislodging the needle bearings inside of them!

14. Now this is where the marks you made earlier will come in. Being sure to align the yoke and the shaft correctly as marked, place the naked joint in line with the holes in the yoke.

15. Align one of the caps with the hole in the yoke and carefully drive it in while keeping the joint centered in it to keep the needles in.

16. Flip it over and do the same on the opposite side.

17. Drive the caps down on both sides to just beyond where the previous caps had set. You'll be able to tell by the marks left where you ground on it. This should be damn near centered!

18. Do the same thing on the other half! Again be careful to align the marks you made earlier as this is important to keep the shaft balanced!

19. Now obtain some wicking grade Loctite! This is green in color and you can get this from your local Fastenal Industrial and Contractor Supply store. Not cheap but still much cheaper than the $600.00 shaft!

20. Apply a very small amount to each cap and let it sink down into the edges and leave it to set up for a few hours.

21. Now this step you can do one of several ways, I used some JB weld around the ends of the caps to further aid in retaining the caps, but you could also obtain a good sharp drill bit and some matching spring pins and drill across the top of the caps (not through them but above) and drive a long enough pin through the holes to hold the caps in! A good bit more work and I doubt if it's neccesary as it takes a lot of force to drive the caps in I can't imagine them coming out anyhow!

22. WOW! That's it! DONE! That wasn't so hard. So much for all those $600 new shaft weve been getting shafted with! By the way it works like a dream! SMOOTH as SILK!

If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me directly @ fastenalebay@yahoo.com

Good luck!

[TobyB]

It would scare me silly to drive around in a car with the

u- joint caps held in with loctite. Even the good stuff.

What Caroll Smith says about it is still true-

it's a wonder material and it solves all sorts of problems

but it can't be used as a substitute for a real fastener.

that's my thought.

t

[Guest Anonymous]

Your version seems workable enough, but you have to ask, why do manufacturers or even remanufacturers go to such great lengths to secure the u-joints with grooves and steel retaining clips or bolt on caps? Your method may work fine-until or unless something disturbs the setup, be it heat or vibration or unexpected driveline torque (e.g. a missed shift or dumping the clutch.)

[hrg88]

I have heard of people putting a washer on top of each cap, holding in place with a c-clamp and tack welding the washer in.

[02tom]

This is similar to what Driveline Service of Portland does, I believe. To the best of my recollection, when I received my rebuilt driveshaft for my e28 in ~2001, their caps are epoxied in place. I was concerned at the time, but it's still going strong.

[TobyB]

hmm, they've done 4 or 5 for me, and the caps are all converted to c- clips...

I'll have to go double check the ones they did last year.

t

[Lilleyvanilli]

What did you find? Epoxy or C-clips? These are all really good posts. I've heard a lot about Drive line in Portland. I just wish they were closer to Charlotte, NC.

[Lilleyvanilli]

I wonder also, say, if a drive shaft has been serviced several times, if the remanufacturer can no longer put in clips/retainers/washers due to metal material removal... if THEN they resort to chemical fastening methods. Still curious what you find under your car.