U joint problem

A socket wrench socket and a big vise always worked for me. You're probably starting it off crooked or not holding the yoke square. If you don't get it in a few more tries, take it to an auto parts place before the yoke bores get all mangled and they'll do it for you.

Be careful that one or some of the needles have not fallen into the bore. Only grease holds them against the wall of the cup.

Bob

I used to pop these in and out with a rawhide mallet and a suitable selection of sockets, one to beat on the cups with and the other as a receiver. When I got a vehicle with alloy yokes, I had to modify that. Ford has a nifty u-joint tool that shows up in their factory manuals, like a big c-clamp with a tube receiver instead of a pad on the off side. HF sells something that works just about as well, that's what I use now.

I follow the factory recommendations, remove opposing cups from the new joint, place one in the outside of one hole and feed the cross into it from the inside. The leg of the cross should be long enough that it fits into the cup without it being in place all the way. Then I press that one cup down past the clip groove. Doing it this way keeps the needles from getting bumped loose and falling to the bottom of the cup. That's guaranteed to ruin your day. I then slide the cross out of the pressed cup enough to start the other cup on it through the other hole, same reason, and press that one into place. Put the clips on, make sure the cross pivots freely, give it a couple of shots with the mallet if it doesn't and that yoke is done. The yoke holes have to be clean, too, make sure all the corrosion or rust is gone before pressing the new cups back in. Takes maybe 10 minutes if I'm a little slow that day.

Stan

You can find the out-of-roundness by inserting the inside jaws of a dial cailper and the rotating it. The needle will show how much deviation you have. Use a die grinder and cartridge roll to true it up.

Gary Brady Austin, TX

Heh, I just did mine last week. Best way I found to start them was to tap them lightly around the cap circumference with a hammer. When I tried other ways (using the vise or the nifty u-joint press I got from HF) they would bind up by not being aligned axially with the hole.

By tapping them lightly with the hammer "around the horn", they found their way in without much effort at all. When they got inside of the yoke, then I used the press tool to push them in enough to get the circle clips in place.

That was last week; this weekend I get to try and remove frozen bleeder screws from my disc brake calipers; oh lucky me!

Jon

That reminds me - when replacing those things (_after_ I get them out) what can I do to make it easier next time? These are steel screws in aluminium alloy castings.

Couple of tricks for U-Joints -- be very careful tapping the bearing caps in -- you can dislodge the needles and it is a real pain to try to get the cap back out without damage ! I have found that with a smooth jaw vise and care, I can get the caps started and pressed without having to tap on them, but it is very important to make sure it is lined up when you press or they do jam.

This part is important -- Once you get the caps pressed in and the clips on, put the U-joint assembly across an open vise (or equiv. support) so the ends of the yoke are supported and hit the end of the other yoke so the caps seat back against the clips. This only moves it several thousands, but it makes the difference between the ends of the spider rubbing in the caps and not. Feel how the joint moves before and after and you will see what I mean. Do that for each cap in the joint. Makes a BIG difference in how long until you change the joint again !!!

mikey

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 04:28:24 -0700, the inscrutable "Jon Danniken" spake:

That's why I bought my 6" HF vise. I use a thick bearing grease on the U-joint needles, really sticking them into the cup. Then I place one cap in the yoke and press it in. Then the U-joint is fitted into that cup and the last cap is fit into the yoke. The pressure of the vise is enough to seat the caps, then slightly smaller sockets provide the final movement before the snap rings. Finally, they get the grease goosed out of 'em. (The old fiber grease isn't as good as the moly.)

Got any R-12? (Totally non PC, and proud of it.) Freeze the screw, heat the caliper body, and turn with a brake line wrench or 6-pt socket.

--== May The Angst Be With You! ==-- -Yoda, on a bad day --

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 09:30:16 -0300, the inscrutable "jtaylor" spake:

Carefully put a small amount of aluminum anti-seize compound on the screw's threads, wiping the end so there's no excess to contaminate the fluid. Q-tips have been known to be useful for both tasks.

--== May The Angst Be With You! ==-- -Yoda, on a bad day --

Yeah, but at the price of R-12 nowadays you don't want to waste a drop of it - and the price is only going to go in ^one^ ^direction^. Use something cheaper, more benign and easier to get like CO2, R-22 or R-134 for making with the freezing.

Try rocking or tapping the screw in both directions to break it loose using a box wrench and a small hammer - mass quantities of force applied on that little bitty bleeder screw are going to have bad results, persuasion is called for.

-->--

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 22:09:11 GMT, the inscrutable Bruce L. Bergman spake:

One wonders if it's now cost effective enough that the coyotes are bringing in illegals with one pack worth of R-12 on one arm and a pack full of illegal drugs on the other. ;)

IIRC, I've had only one freeze on me and a whack from my smallest Ford hammer (directly on top) got it loose enough to break free with a line wrench. Then again, I didn't live in corrosive snow country, either.

--== May The Angst Be With You! ==-- -Yoda, on a bad day --

Bleed the brakes once a year.Flush the fluid every two. That doesnt give 'em much time to corrode in.

Generally to get out a stuck bleeder I heat the tip of the bleeder to red hot quickly with the torch, then smack it on the head lightly with a small hammer. You don't want to put enough heat into it on an aluminum caliper to affect the threads in the caliper, but that's pretty hard to do given the thermal mass of the caliper and the fact that the oxide layer makes a pretty good insulator. The heat swells the screw, starting to fracture the oxide layer - and the smack with the hammer does the rest. Shocking with a shot of ice-water instead of the hammer also often works - if you NEED to salvage the bleeder screw and can't risk flattening the tit on the end with a hammer.