Ozzzzy

I'm sure most of you remember the days when the driveshaft u-joint went bad, you just went down to the parts store, paid $30, got a sledge hammer and replaced the joint and drove away! Easy peasy! I'm sure ALL of you are just as frustrated by these"permanent" u-joints that are anything but permanent and ware down just like their predecessors but of course the monster difference between the two is that there is no trip to the parts store to shell out a few bucks but instead you have to shell out $1000 for a entire driveshaft! Aw HELL NO!

Now when this happened the first time a couple of years ago, I came here for help, and a couple said to call your local shops, they will know what to do. I called. They all said permanent is just that but they were ALL happy too sell me a new driveshaft. I called everywhere! Now for most of you, a bad u-joint means going down to your local pick-a-part/junk yard and getting another shaft, but of course that has all it's own problems attached but at least you have that option. I don't. I have a 5 speed and they of course have different shafts. I was able to hunt on-line and find another shaft at a junk yard a few hours away and all was happy and joyful because these are RARE to find but all was good.......until a couple of months ago, it's own problems surfaced, went bad, and I was on the hunt again, and I finally found one in Indiana and they were able to ship it down and for the good price of $300. Thats $300 for a u-joint! And I had to be happy it ONLY cost hundreds of dollars to replace a u-joint and I'm virtual certain I found the last used one around!

I vowed that I would burn the car to the ground before I spent $1000+ to replace a friggin u-joint just on G.P.!

So I decided that I wasn't going to accept this "permanent" definition. (Cue Rage Against the Machine)

I first went to the local parts store and rented the u-joint puller and went to work trying to remove the bad u-joint and ran into the first problem. The joint center is too large and hits the shaft before the cap puches out the side so I grabbed my favorite cutting tool and



With the center out...



Punch out the old caps....


Next you have to remove the factory locking tabs that were cut into the shaft of course getting them completely smooth.....


I took one of the caps to the parts store, used their micrometer and went hunting online for a match. I didn't realize how many different u-joints there are until I started this but I finally found a u-joint that has caps that are only 1/100th of an inch larger. I had to go through a distributor but a got my package in the mail.....


Now even though the difference is only 1/100", it does require that the center is inserted into the each cap when impacting into the shaft. I once inserted a cap and when I tried inserting, it just wouldn't go. But the difference is small enough that once in the shaft, the joint does spin freely.



The length from cap to cap is shorter then the factory joint, but that turned out to be huge plus because you have to start by placing the first cap on the inside of the shaft, insert the center into the cap, then with the tool pushing it in from the opposite side, you can't have the cap on that side,so you have to push the cap all the way until the center hits the shaft, then you have to insert the other cap on the opposite side, and there is JUST enough room, just a couple more millimeters and it would have been impossible, then push back the other way until both sides are in the shaft and centered. Then of course repeat on the second part. The second part is FAR more difficult with the joint attached to the other half, but it's manageable.

Then I had to worry about keeping the u-joint locked into the shaft without the factory tabs. So I grabbed my Dremel cutting wheel, trimmed it down to fit and cut out a channel on both sides to act as anchors...


for JB Weld


And that is my $40 solution to a $1000 problem!!!

SMOOTH!

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Ozzzzy

It was brought to my attention that I may have given the impression that the u-joint I found, and this procedure I came up with, would only work on 5-speed shafts. This will of course work on both. The difference between the two shafts is only the length of one of the halves.