[TR] u-joint

[spamiam at comcast.net]

Gary,

They can be a bugger to get apart.  The corrosion prevents the caps from 
moving.  As a previous reply said, clean the corrosion so the cap will 
slide.  The instructions say that gentle tapping is all that is necessary to 
get the caps to move.  Well, it usually takes a BFH.  You need to be aware 
that wailing on the U-joint may well bend the yoke(s) and make the holes for 
the caps no longer perfectly aligned.

I took my drive and half shafts to a truck drive-line service place.  On one 
end of the driveshaft I had gotten the u-joint replaced by myself.  The 
other I could not budge.

The service guy showed me that on the side I had successfully replaced the 
yokes were distorted.  There was considerable resistance to rotation that I 
thought was just normal.  He then "tuned" the yokes by spreading or 
compressing them.  After slight tweaking, the u-join moved MUCH more freely, 
they are pretty much floppy.  Just a vague hint of resistance to motion. 
Also the drive shaft was way way out of balance.  It was all fixed, tuned, 
and balanced for a very reasonable price.

When I did the u-joint replacement, I found that 5 of the 6 in my TR4A were 
shot.  Literally with broken rollers!  None of the caps were spinning, btw. 
Other than the one that was obviously terribly bad, the others were subtle 
or seemed fine.  Just replace all the u-joints if you don't know how old 
they are (or if they are original).

-Tony

-----Original Message----- 
Message: 4
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 14:55:47 -0800 (PST)
From: Gary Nafziger <nafzigerg at yahoo.com>
Subject: [TR] u-joint
To: triumphs at autox.team.net
Message-ID: <747505.39435.qm at web65302.mail.ac2.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Since I'm restoring a tr-3 ground up I decided to renew the u-joints.  How 
in
the H is one supposed to get the caps off?  The book says drive the cap out
until it's proud of the surface and then pull out with your fingers.  UH HUH
lol.  Maybe from a fairly new car but from one with 50 yrs. of rust? 
There's no
way to pull them out..........nothing to grip.

My joints weren't really that loose or worn out, just old and I thought
renewing them would be a good thing to do and I had time while waiting on 
more
parts to come.  So I just put them back as they were and intend on using 
them
until they cause trouble later.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on getting out rusted caps. 
Actually,
these joints seem pretty tough and I'm wondering if many people have trouble
with U-joints.

gary n.