[TR] fix and ride

[Tony Drews]

The u-joints in the axles have to deal with larger angles and 
variable amounts of flexing, while the ones from trans to 
frame-mounted diff are almost perfectly straight all of the time.

Driveshaft u-joints in a solid axle car won't last as long as they 
have to flex more and have more misalignment continually.

Tony

At 09:08 PM 6/29/2014, Ron L'Herault wrote:
>Last Monday I changed the oil in my 1973 TR-6 and did my nut and bolt check.
>I had a clunk in the rear and though maybe the nuts at the connection to the
>diff had loosened again.  They were tight but the U joint had play in it so
>I changed it, fortunately having three of them on the parts shelf.
>Unfortunately I didn't have new nylock nuts so I got on line to the Roadster
>Factory and ordered 4 of them along with a new turn signal blinker unit with
>the hope that a new one would make the lights blink faster.  I'd already
>cleaned all the connections and bulb bases which helped a bit.  The nuts and
>flasher unit came in on Friday and I decided to do the install today.  It
>all went without a hitch.  Clunk is pretty much gone and turn signals flash
>at an acceptably fast rate.   After cleaning up I took the car out for a
>test drive -which really means that I headed over to the Ice Cream Machine
>for a cone of ginger ice cream.  It was such a great day for a ride.  The
>weather was PERFECT.   However I did get to wondering about the U joints on
>the drive shaft.  I have never replaced them on this '73 with 85K on it and
>I never did on my first TR-6 which had 95 K on it when it was wrecked back
>in 1979.   Sooooo, why do the rear axle U joints need to be replaced more
>often than the drive shaft U joints.  I think the are the same size/part
>number, right?
>
>Grinning still from the nice ride today,
>
>Ron L
>
>** triumphs at autox.team.net **
>
>Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
>Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
>Forums: http://www.team.net/forums
>Unsubscribe/Manage: 
>http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/triumphs/tony@tonydrews.com