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U-joint question

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bigbadbluetr6

bigbadbluetr6

Jedi Trainee
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Well I've got my u-joints out of my car and got all the old ones out. When my dad and I were trying to put in the new u-joints one side of them would not push in far enough to get both the pins in to hold the u-joint in place. We've got one all the way completely done and it wobbes both ways just great. On the other three you try and put it the pins on both sides and you get them in but one side is tough to move. What do you think is going on here? We've messured all of them with a mirco and found out they are all real real close to the same. Could we have pushed on of those bearings off and down in the bottom? I sure hope this Triumph forum will be good at changing u-joints with all the problems we've had lately. Have a nice day.
ERic
73 TR6
 
You have almost certainly dropped a pin. By now you've likely taken the joint back apart and discovered this. Good luck.
 
That's got to be the most exasperating job. I've added a bit more grease to the bearing cups to hole everything in place, but the pins seem to jump out on their own. It is not fun. Twice I put the things together only to discover the dropped pin. Trouble was the pin got cut into pieces. Yuck. T.T.
 
If you are hammering the cups in place, you are almost certainly going to lose a needle. Use a vise or a large C clamp to press the cups in and you'll have a lot better luck. Smearing some additional grease in the cups around the needles will help in keeping them in one place as well.
Jeff
 
Everything the guys say is the straight stuff - definitely a pinched bearing . The best tips are to use more grease to hold the bearing in and to judiciously seat the caps on the spiders - After using every jury-rigged method ranging from hammering to the jolly old "2 appropriately sized sockets and a vise" routine
I went to Northern hydraulics and bought a 1 ton bench mount arbor press for $39 - a whole lot less fidgeting around trying to get the pieces aligned and pushed into place - just hold em with one hand and pull the handle slowly - after doing it one or twice you could do it in your sleep.

It's also good for many other things which might need to be "persuaded" - it's uses are only limited by your imagination.
 
As I mentioned in the other post, I tried to "persuade" the joints into the yokes, physically as well as verbally, only to split one of the pins/needles. It doesn't help that the yokes are tapered, and it's hard to keep the bearing cups perpendicular. "Easy does it" is the operative advice.

Mickey
 
Well now I have all the u-joints in my car except the one that holds the drive shaft. While tighting my lug nuts tonight the same darn sound was coming from the rear of the car. Does this sounds like the u-joint that goes with the driveshaft or is it something else like the diff. or some other piece of equipment.
Eric
73 TR6
 
I had a strange noise coming from the rear drive train of my Spitfire. It was a rhythmic scraping noise. I thought it was the differential- turned out to be the right rear wheel bearing. Seems to me, a u-joint may have a clunk or snap as the car starts to move. T.T.
 
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