Advice on Bravo One U joint removal

[ryan04]

Hey Folks! I have a 2006 bravo one drive on my bench right now. I'm replacing the upper 17 spline yoke that couples to the engine coupler. I am having a hell of a time figuring out how to get the caps off the ends off the U joints in order to pull the yoke off. The retainer clips are on the outside.

What i've done so far is:
I've removed both c clips
Pressed the U joint to one side

Where I run into trouble is the end caps are so thick/long that even though the opposite side is just barely out from under the inside of the U joint housing the opposite side that is exposed/pushed out, is still at least 50% buried in the U joint housing. The friction fit that those end caps have seems to be too much and even with vice grips I can't even spin the end cap to get it off so I can press it the other way to slide it out.

Hopefully I'm articulating the problem clearly enough.

Advice?

 

[tpenfield]

Not sure this helps, but . . .

http://www.tpenfield.com/Formula330/OutDrive_U-Joints.html

As I recall, you push the bearing cup as far out of the yoke as possible from one side until you can grab it with a wrench . . . it should be somewhat loose by then. If not try a little bit of heat on the yoke where it wraps around the cup. the expansion of the yoke should make things a little more loose.

then you can push the bearing the other way to drive the other cup out . . . . etc, etc.

 

[ryan04]

Thanks for the link. I wish it helped haha. The problem with mine is the retainer clips aren't on the inside. They're on the outisde so the face of the cup is recessed by a 16th or so. Because of that recess the U joint cross will be pushed as far over as possible and the cup is still 50% pressed into the U joint housing.

 

[ryan04]

Well, I got it off haha. I pressed it all the way to one side then pushed it about a 64th more and sprayed a little WD40 around it. Super tight vice grips were able to pop the one side cap off. At that point because i'm replacing the yoke shaft I just took a grinder and cut the yoke with the cap in the opposite side. On the bench I just pushed it out. Reassembly will be easy and now I even have the basis for an alignment tool haha.