U Joint Removal Hassle

[Two Cold Soakers]

1997 D1, 170k, original u-joints.

The rear driveshaft is off. Eight circlips and 2 grease nipples have been removed.

How do I get the spiders out of the yokes?

"Tap yokes to eject bearing cups." says RAVE.
The greasy old Haynes goes a little further by saying "...using a hammer and suitable drift, tap the bearing cup until the opposite cup protrudes from the yoke...then grip the protruding cup in the vise jaws and wiggle the shaft until the cup comes free."

Yea, right... tap my ass.

I've soaked the cups in PB, pounded the cup as hard as i dare with a drift, cranked a 3/4" socket against one cup in the bench vise, and applied heat until flaming grease is dripping on the floor. The thing wont budge a mm.

What do I do?
Get a bigger hammer?
Hotter torches?
More PB?
Throw a pipe on the vise handle?
Band saw the spider?

Please, offer up your experience, strength and hope.
Can the yoke be broken doing this?

 

[mdycus2980]

"What do I do?
Get a bigger hammer?
Hotter torches?
More PB?
Throw a pipe on the vise handle?
Band saw the spider?"


yes.

 

[flyfisher11]

Know anyone with a big hydraulic press?

 

[KevinNY]

Cut the ujoint in half with a torch.

 

[Discoinjapan]

If your going to trash the spiders then just cut them.

 

[hafaday]

when you put it in the vise, did you use a larger size socket on the opposite side?

 

[robertf]

put one cross section loose in the vice, hit yoke behind the ears with hammer, rotate 90 degrees and repeat on opposite part.

You may need vice grips to twist the old cap out.

big and little sockets sometimes works, but I've broken vices doing that.

what the hell is a spider? I've been doing this a long time and have never heard anyone call a driveshaft part a spider.

 

[Two Cold Soakers]

I'm calling the ujoint, without the caps seals and bearings the spider. The cross or tee. "Spider" is what the manual calls it. Must be British English.

Anyhow, I set the works up in the vise again, with a 3/4 " socket drift. After getting all square and true, a 2' long chunk of black iron pipe was slid on the vise handle for extra leverage/torque.
It moved the cups flush to the other side of the yoke. I rotated the shaft 90 degrees, held the socket with channel locks and "tapped" it out the rest of the way.

Brute force was the answer, after a 2 hour PB soak.

Thanks.

 

[DiscoJen]

I just did mine 2 weeks ago and let me tell you I wanted to choke someone by the time I was done. I beat them out with a huge hammer and it took about 2 hours for end of the driveshaft.

Getting them back in, I used a vice at first, but it broke. So I went to O'reilly's and rented the ball joint tool and they went in like cake even with my wimpy ass.

 

[peter sherman]

Thems can be tight! Thighter than a _____________ ! You just need a BFH & give it. Just don't missss..

 

[Two Cold Soakers]

Pressed new ones in today at lunch, like butter.

 

[n8thgr8]

I used a ball pine hammer that fit nicely in the yolk, and a sledge. As well as the removal press. (looks like a big C clamp)
The rougher ones took a LOT of force.

 

[KngTgr]

It should only take 6 minutes to replace each Ujoint like in this video.

 

[bri]

Do you guys have your DS balanced once you replace the joints?

 

[MUSKYMAN]

Do you guys have your DS balanced once you replace the joints?

It should not need to be.

that guy in the video is good for sure, the secret with these is knowing where to strike and where not to. Also he makes a great point about only pushing parralel. The outside of the yokes on the stockers are not really parralel so if you crank against them with the vice while pushing in the far side cap the yoke will move a bit in the vise and the cap will move and get cock-eyed in the yoke against the ujoint cross and you will destroy the needle bearings.

Also go back and watch the last step the guy does, he strikes and rotates the shaft at eack yoke position to set the caps back against the C-clips. this allows the shaft to rotate and creates the correct clearence at the enf of the u-joint cross for the grease to move from the cross to each of the caps.

 

[n8thgr8]

there are for sure some techniques in that video that I will use next time!