TR4/4A Universal joint diameter

After my disasters with the oil leaks, the car is finally back on the road. I had an issue with the front universal joint hitting the Rimmer gearbox tunnel, so I bought a 2 piece one from Racetorations. The Rimmer one had a very poor fit on the firewall flange as it was about 1" too big in diameter, so I thought that the tunnel was the problem.

The Racetorations one is a much better fit and seals properly, but the outside of the universal joint is still hitting the tunnel. I had a good look at it from under the car and then had a look at pictures in the Workshop Manual. In those pictures, the "ears" of the UJ are a smaller diameter than the flange that bolts to the gearbox output. I had the propellor shaft reconditioned before the oil disaster and the "ears" stick out beyond the flange and are hitting the tunnel. It looks like they may have fitted the wrong sized UJ and sliding spline.

Would anyone have a stripped car or a spare prop shaft lying around? If so, could you take a couple of pictures of the front UJ and flange and send them to me so I can see if my diagnosis is correct?

PS The car does not seem to be leaking oil at this stage. :eagerness:

Thanks in advance

Hi Barie...These pics may assist.

Here's mine, which is original. Just like Malbaby's.

Thank you Malcolm and Steve. Those pictures are just what I was looking for. The "ears" on the the universal joint on my car are sticking out well beyond the flange and they are what is hitting the tunnel. I will take it out and get it rebuilt. (Again!)

Thanks again.

I am a tr3 guy, but and and that looks the same to me. I took a whole drive-line into a local driveline specialty shop to have the drive-line balanced and new UJs and or whatever it needed. The guy had parts to fit and yoks and the whole deal, so either these UJs stayed the same for a long time or there is somekinda standard size to the caps and they can cross reference stuff. Anyways I am not driving this TR3 yet, so I will look and see if they keep the cap size underneath the flange.

Rocky- are you sure the universal joint is installed correctly? If the cups are sticking out, chances are a needle bearing came loose preventing the cups from seating properly. No way they should stick out and I think it wound be dangerous as the cups would not be held in by clips- can you show a picture?b

Ps read your note more carefully and it sounds like the driveshaft yoke is oversized for some reason. Very strange.

Barie...some pics of your UJ would be interesting.
Did you use the original flange or an after market one of different size......As TR4nut says....something odd here.
Another thought...is the rear gearbox mounting correct ..gearbox sitting too high?

I jacked the car up last night and took some photos. You can see that the UJ is larger in diameter than the mounting flange. There appears to be a lot more metal around the cups than in the photos that Malbaby took.
I think that when the prop shaft was rebuilt last year, they used a different, larger UJ.

The car is going in to have the Goodparts roller rockers installed next week. I will get the prop shaft removed and rebuilt with a smaller UJ. I will report back!

Barie....from the pics, you seem to have a mismatch of parts.
Your pic number one is the most revealing...can hardly see the uni.
What parts are original Triumph TR.

malbaby said:

Barie....from the pics, you seem to have a mismatch of parts.
Your pic number one is the most revealing...can hardly see the uni.
What parts are original Triumph TR.

Click to expand...

Malcolm, the story related to a vibration that the car developed. When I rebuilt the car about 18 years ago, I tried to ensure that everything was as new. I sent the prop shaft to Hardy Spicer in Dandenong to be reconditioned. As you know, they were the company that made driveshafts for many different car companies, so I thought that they would know what they were doing.

About 2 years ago, the car developed a vibration. I had all the wheels balanced without any improvement, so I got my friendly mechanic to run the car up to 100kph on his dyno rollers, so he could look under the car and see what the problem was. The prop shaft was the culprit. We sent it to a specialist driveshaft company, and this is how it came back. When you send these things out to be fixed, you do not expect to have to give instructions about getting it back in original condition. However, this time, I WILL be giving instructions! I will use your photos to show them what I want.