Staked Steering Ujoint Replacement

[Dat73z]

Like many other Zs my 50+yr old staked ujoints were making some clicky play and of course there is not much good information out there. 

 

After some research online, the staked ujoints can be replaced but restaking them properly requires a special tool which is quite expensive (500$ to a few thousand). Also many shops will not touch these components for liability reasons. 

 

So what I did was I carefully ground down the stakes with a dremel tool and pressed out the old ujoints. 

 

For the new ujoints I actually had to do the job twice as I initially purchased some ujoints recommended by the classic zcar forums. What I found was the caps were so soft that they ovalled out when pressing in and caused binding in the joint. The country of manufacture were not specified on the boxes, and when I cut the joints out to redo the crosses were also soft. 

 

After many years of dealing with poor quality aftermarket parts, I should have known better and the solution I found was to purchase high quality Made in Japan Toyo joints PN ST-1540 (15mmx40mm), and when pressing these in the caps do not distort or cause binding. I believe this is an OEM part and OE supplier.

 

Pressing the new joints in, you need to be careful and press the caps to the appropriate depth to achieve 40mm cap-to-cap, centered in the yokes on either end of the cross. 

 

Similar to what is done in the 4x4 communities I decided to tack weld where the old stakes were, 4 per joint and air cool after each tack as to not overheat the parts. I know this is much stronger than the factory arrangement as I was able to press the OEM caps past the OE stakes whereas I could not actually press out my first install attempt (before I realized the poor quality bearing issue) with a 20 ton press without exactly grinding down the spot welds for fear of bending the yoke ears (the poor quality soft caps were all kinds of mushrooming out and distorting unlike the OE hardened caps). 

 

Hopefully this helps someone. This has been on my to do list for the better part of a decade and I know from inspecting many columns and steering shafts over the years that there are a lot of worn joints out there. 

 

Edit: per suggestion from @NewZed the joints which did not work are as follows: 

 

https://www.driveshaftparts.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1100

 

From this thread at classic Z cars: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/63434-steer-column-u-joints/?do=findComment&comment=629099

 

When I was researching the above joint, it seems many of the same appearance above are sold under different name brands are coming out of China, probably from the same or similar factories. 

 

Also some tips: I practiced the tacks on a few spare caps I had laying around and they blow through super easy compared to thicker driveshaft ujoint caps. So focus your torch on the cast yoke, one small dab of filler, and lightly wash the filler down onto the cap. Work quick so you put the minimum heat into the parts. 

 

 

Edited December 1 by Dat73z