Murch240z Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 (1973 240z) Well, my u-joints have been clunking for awhile, so I figured it was time to get off my arse and replace them. Little did I know what I was getting myself into with this driveshaft, and now I'm out of ideas on how to get the cup out of the hole. Step 1 - Remove snaprings.........where the hell are the snaprings? Not the C-ring inside the flange.....and not a D ring in a groove on the outside....wtf? Upon closer examination I see that there is a step inside the flange hole (camera's broken or I'd take a picture) and someone seems to have used a chisel or some such to notch it and leave tabs to keep the u-joint in instead of actual snaprings. Step 2 - Chisel off tabs of metal and carefully use drill bit to smooth leftover metal - Check. Step 3 - Position in vise w/ large and small sockets to push out the other side. Attach breaker bar to vise handle, get some real torque on it and *POP* it pops through the outside. But wait, the cross of the u-joint hits before the cup is clear of the hole. Step 4 - Position flathead to use as pry-bar on the underside of the cup. Pry with everything I've got....it moved! Oh wait, that was just the flange flexing. But there's some extra "shoulder" room before the cross hits the flange now, back to sockets and vise....lookie there, all it did was un-flex the flange. I've tried everything I can think of to get this F-ing thing off of here. Tried drilling through the top of the cap in order to hook something inside and yank it out...drill bit won't make a mark even when I punch the starting point first. Hacksaw won't make a mark either. Don't have a torch, try the heatgun to heat up the cap and try a few angles again....nothing. So, I've destroyed the built-in snapring and shredded the rubber seal on the u-joint itself making sure there wasn't a "real" snapring I was missing, so, clunk aside, no way I can still use the things. Any ideas as to how I can get this damnable thing out, or am I just stuck paying a machine shop to deal with it? I'm out of ideas, it's my daily driver, and my bank account is running just about on empty, so I managed to set myself pretty far up the infamous creek without a paddle. If anyone has the slightest insight into my issues please suggest anything you know of, I'm about as stumped as I've ever been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murch240z Posted July 26, 2009 Author Share Posted July 26, 2009 Oh yeah, it's the front yoke that I'm working with now, so where I said the flange flexed I suppose it was more of the yoke shifting position rather than any actual flexing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bodie Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 after step 3 your cap should b sticking out enough to where you can get a big pair of channel lock and twist it out, then repeat step 3 again for the other side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murch240z Posted July 26, 2009 Author Share Posted July 26, 2009 Tried with channel locks, vice grips, it's wedged so tight that it can't be twisted. It seems that whatever process was used to make the tabs created a small ridge on the inside of the hole that's keeping the caps wedged in too tight to be moved without applying a very large amount of brute force. Finally ended up getting the first u-joint half out before I called it quits for the night, took calling an extra set of hands/eyes in, beating it in the other direction and then we managed to get a chisel on the backside of the cup and drove it out (not without a good deal of difficulty, but it came out). Even knowing how to get them out with the ridiculous tabs it's not going to go quickly tomorrow (takes a lot of work to have any effect on the metal that's been forced to hold the cap in place), but at least I know that they WILL come out. Here's hoping that it's not my halfshafts knocking because I'll have done all of this for naught. Well, not quite nothing, at least I won't have to go through all of this trouble the next time I replace them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bodie Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 yea they get stuck sometimes, ive got a special press for ujoint but for the one that are stuck good ive been know to use a BFH and tap them out on a vice. and if you think you halfshaft are bad ive got a set you can have if you dont mind driving to waco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MONGO510 Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 Many drive shafts have u_joints that are not designed to be replaced. Sounds like this is what you have. Use a cutting torch to cut out the cross. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.