I had 5 of 6 that were bad in my old TR4a. The driveshaft had a nasty
vibration. When I got under the car I saw that the yokes of the driveshaft
were not aligned properly. I thought to myself "Ah Ha!! That is the
reason". So I realigned the yokes. The problem was MUCH MUCH worse after
that. It felt like the driveshaft was going to fly out of the car!
I then FELT the U-joints. THey had some very palpable play when I tried
resisting back and forth rotation of the opposite side. I could feel a ton
of play.
I took the drivehasft to a truck driveline place and they replaced the
U-joints. They had to fiddle with the spread of the yokes to get the
perfect flexibility of joints too. Then they also found that the shaft was
terribly out of balance. They fixed all that and it was fine.
After that I was quite attuned to little jolts in the driveline. I felt
more, but very subtle, unevenness. It was almost like an irregularity in
the pavement. It took me a little while to convince myself it was not my
imagination.
I then felt the play in the joints on the half shafts. I could JUST barely
feel a slight "click" of play. I took out the half shafts and tried to take
them to the driveline place. It turned out that the guy who worked there
moved to the main shop in a town 40 miles away. So I did hte job myself. I
did not tune the yokes, not balance the halfshafts, but it turned out OK.
When I looked in the old cups I could see that the rollers had worn little
ruts in the cup and spider. It seems thay roll back and forth rather than
around and around. It appears that they fail by making ruts. 3 of the 4
joints were worn out. BTW, the joints in the mainshaft were so bad that
the rollers were BROKEN!
So, I'd say, if they are old and there is any doubt, just replace them. I
bet the new ones will be tighter.
-Tony
> What has been curiously lacking with the discussion on the list so far is:
> WHY replace the U-joints at all? WHAT symptom would you be trying to
> eliminate? WHY are new U-joints even necessary?
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