Stupid Luverly U-joints

[nola mike]

Since I had nothing that needed to be done this summer, and the boat was running fine, I decided to make a few projects for myself for no good reason.
I've changed trim sensors, bellows, shift cable, water hose so far. Decided, what the hell, replace u-joints. I got a kit from my FLAPS to press out the joints. After realizing that I needed to take apart the whole input shaft assembly (no thanks, did that last year) to do it properly, I ground off a couple of the ears on the bearing carrier nut to press out the joints. Lessons learned so far:
1. Grind off the ears on opposing sides of the nut. You don't need it to get the joints out, but you do to get them back in.
2. If you think that you're pressing hard enough to break something, you probably are. If everything is aligned right, it doesn't take a ton of force to get the joints in/out
3. A prop removal socket (1 1/6"?) works PERFECTLY for pressing the joint out of the yoke. Once I figured this out, things went a lot smoother.

How I've screwed up so far:
Attempt #1. Got the new joint pressed in with difficulty, and it didn't turn right. Took it back off, and found that one of the needle bearings had broken. Bad times. Thought about using one of the bearings from the old joint, but decided against it. Will just buy another joint...
#2. Pressed the new joint almost all the way in, when "pop". Broke the bottom part of the cover off at the circlip groove. Oh yeah, also somehow broke off the grease zerk. Planning on replacing the cover with one of the ones from the other broken joint, and seeing if I can get the zerk out with an ez out, but may just replace the whole joint.

So I'm 4 hours in at this point, and basically at square one. Very frustrating. Especially since I'm not convinced that the u joints even needed replacing. Tomorrow I head to auto zone and buy a couple of new joints, hopefully fix on sunday. Goal is to have boat on the water by memorial day, and more reliable than ever!

 

[achris]

Why is everybody saying you need to either pull the input shaft or grind off one lug on the cover nut? Both these suggestions are insane! You do not need to do either.

I will detail the process I have used EVERY TIME I have replaced uni joints (and I have done A LOT!). I have NEVER ground off a lug. The mere idea is ludicrous!

1. Flick out the old snap clips. (followed by a 3 hour hunt around the workshop to find them. You can hear them bouncing around )
2. Turn the input shaft so one of the caps is between 2 of the cover nut lugs. You'll need to be quite accurate with this.
3. Using a large socket and a rubber mallet, drive on one of the caps to push the cross through to the opposite side and pull the bearing cap off. It WILL come out between the lugs.
4. Now drive the cross back the other way so the cap on the opposite side pops out of the gear end yoke. Pull that cap off.
5. Work the cross so it can be removed from the gear end yoke.
6. Take the center socket and coupler end yoke to the bench and continue removing caps and crosses.

Replacement is the reverse of this process. I like to use a large socket and an F-clamp to 'press' the caps in. Don't forget to fit the NEW snap clips. (and be careful, they also like to go 'ping-ping' around the workshop).

Chris............
(And if I hear of another person grinding lugs off, I'll get very upset!)

 

[Scott Danforth]

achris , maybe a good idea for a video?

 

[achris]

Chris, maybe a good idea for a video?

Yep, next time.

 

[nola mike]

I'd love to see how you do it, achris . I didn't think I'd be able to hammer it out, though I didn't try. Using a press-type tool (rather than hammering, which is usually my go-to method to fix things), it seems that you'd need to support the yoke somehow. I used the prop socket, which definitely won't fit the unmodified ring. Also, the merc manual recommends removing the drive shaft to replace (unless there was another section that I'm missing). Anyway, I found the part at Autozone (Duralast 1-6301DL) for the replacement. Hopefully will still be able to fix it tomorrow, I'll have an hour or 2 to work on it. Also, if you're looking to search by car (rather than part #, which has been a bit difficult), the correct application is a '68 Chrysler Newport 6.3L, 2 1/8" yoke.

 

[Scott06]

Nola Mike post a picture if you can as I felt the same way when doing ujoints on a alpha gen one and end up notching the nut tabs.would be great if that wasn't needed.
Used a big c clamp , essentially the same as a balljoint press and big sockets to press with.

 

[nola mike]

Nola Mike post a picture if you can as I felt the same way when doing ujoints on a alpha gen one and end up notching the nut tabs.would be great if that wasn't needed.
Used a big c clamp , essentially the same as a balljoint press and big sockets to press with.

Sure, what do you want a picture of?

 

[Scott06]

the clearance between the ujoint and the tabbed nut

 

[nola mike]

Finally finished everything, will be finally putting the boat in this weekend. A couple of pics...

here's the bearing cup in place. It certainly doesn't look like there's enough room to get this out; hard to see, but there's a bit of a bevel on the cup, making it even wider


Here's the cup inside the socket. Maybe you could use a bit smaller socket, but not by much.

 

[Scott06]

Mike that's exactly what I ran into on my Gen one I couldn't see pushing it out with out notching the nut. Either way it's done and your boating hopefully