Slip yoke greasing with PTFE, no problem getting it off, marked it up before hand to ensure I got it all back on correctly. But was not expecting what I found, and kicking myself for not listening to "many of you" who said check your u-joints a new part isn't always a good part".

I was expecting a grove in the female and male ends of the slip yoke that allowed it to only be put with those groves lined up. I find that grove on the female end....

You can see grove at the top of the photo

The male end has no double teeth and can be put on in any direction. Good thing I did mark it.


Once I had the full yoke/flange out I take a good look at it and realize it only moves 1 direction easily the other way is almost impossible to move. Take a closer look and find one of the clips is buggered up and not set straight. So off to parts store and get a new U-joint, greasable and $20 later back and tapping them out with a socket. Get the buggered one off and find a needle bearing ground into a pretzel in the bottom of the cup. Open the new u-joint box and realize that what they gave me will not fit. New one has 4 ends with and o/d of 1.125 and the one I took off measures 2 ends of 1.0625 and 2 ends at 1.125. Don't know if you can see if the picture but two sides are slightly smaller.

This is the one I took off my truck.

So back to store tell them to try again. They pull every ford truck U-joint from 2000-2010 and can find not a single one that has two different sized ends. All their computers say no 2000 Ford Truck has this U-joint. They find one not in stock and order it for me to check. I am wondering are these guys just clueless or is it really this hard?

So back home and get the yoke and flange and start taking a good look. Here it is just off the truck.

Marked up with red paint to make sure I got it back on correctly.

Then me stacking them up to see the hole size difference. The flange end (transmission) is bigger than the driveshaft end which I think you can see below.

Ford lists no U-Joint that will fit this combination of yoke and flange.

I do have a different front and rear axle in this truck. Dana 60 up front instead of a Dana 50 (irrelevant to this issue) and a Sterling 10.5 3.73 LS from a 2002 F250 in the rear, replacing a Sterling 3.73 10.5 open that was in the truck originally. I do recall the driveshaft place telling me they had a problem with the yoke fitting. But still can't find any difference between the yokes or joints between those two trucks/axles/years and am really stumped by the different sized ends on the joints.

Still kicking myself for not listening to the "check your u joint suggestions" while looking for my vibration causes, they were new so they were good - NOT! Even if this odd sized joint ends up being "ok" I still had one that wasn't correctly installed even though it as "new"

Did some google searching before I posted this and I think what I may need is this u-joint?
Dennys Driveshafts > 1310 FORD Rear to 1330 Series Combination U-joint...Neapco Greaseable

 

I hate those projects that require multiple trips to the parts store to get the right part. You just lose so much momentum. There has got to be a company that custom makes U joints that could get you the exact fit.

 

Having a loose needle in the bottom of the cap is common but usually detected when you go to put the snap rings in but if you use a heavy press and crush the single needle and are able to get the cap on it would probably throw it out of balance. Usually it is obvious because the snap ring will look contorted. Sometimes there is enough room in the cap to accommodate a loose needle (that is the worst). New parts can easily be bad due to human error. I had 3 radiator caps in a row that were bad. The measurements in that diagram should be all you need to get the right u-joint. Those people probably aren't clueless but they are not used to oddball sizes. I would call Denny's Driveshafts, they are the experts. Also another parts store might help since these guys seem to be stumped.

 

Guess I am wanting to assure myself the "oddball" joint on this truck are good and aren't the source of any of my vibs? Or did someone gerry ring my ride and not tell me? Don't get why the 10.5 to 10.5 swap changes the yokes. I will keep digging and see if I can get an answer. And the shop who pounded that clip in and did nothing to fix it, well they are going to get some "loving" from me tomorrow.

 

Maybe you should see if you could just swap the yoke out for one like on the stock setup.

 

Going to be my first question to the drive line shop who did the work on my shafts. I want to understand why I have yoke/flange set that doesn't match and see how that can be corrected. If I have to use some special sized conversion u-joint to make it function - well that's not what I would consider "right".

 

I hope you took a picture of it or before you pulled it apart but you might not need that one. I would take them to small claims for all the parts and labor if they don't pay up. Only an experienced mechanic would automatically know if the clip didn't easily slip in that a needle was horizontal in the cap. If possible I would do what HD said too. Save that crushed needle and the inside of the cap might have scores in it too or even be slightly curved out at the face.

 

I did take a photo


And for now it's sitting in garage in 4wd and it's not moving except to go get the proper Yokes/flanges put onto it so it can run standard u joints. No way I'm putting some conversion style "make it work" u joint in this truck and beyond annoyed that a reputable drive shaft shop would rig up a truck like this, press in a joint like that (had to know it wasn't seated properly with the clip like that) and just send it out. Also kicking myself for not noticing sooner. Seems all the times I was under there before that one just happen to end up facing the CAT which makes it very hard to see. Worst part is it's been back to them twice since that was put in for re-balancing and they said nothing, and didn't fix it. If I hadn't pulled that shaft down to grease the yoke I may have never found it. Also discovered I have some play in the pinion shaft that I know wasn't there before this setup went into the truck. So I'm wondering if all the wobbling has also damaged the differential bearings. All the times I was back saying I don't think my DS is balanced, and they did it again and said your good, well ya because they were balancing just the shaft and left the problem attached to the truck! Can you feel me fuming?

Edit: and I do have the crushed needle and there is a good score grove on that end of the joint where you see it pressed into the metal.

 

FWIW I had a devil of a time finding the correct u-joints for my 1992 F350 4x4 several years ago. The part manuals listed at least 12-14 different combinations depending on engine/transmission/wheelbase/etc. Even though I wrote down all the specifics for my truck before going to the part store even they could not give me a straight answer which ones should fit. I was smart enough to bring the old ones with me so we mic'ed each one then compared the measurements on the replacement joints until we found the correct ones that fit, front and rear.

It is not uncommon to have different u-joint cap sizes as well as cross-sectional width/length differences. Definitely not one of Ford's better ideas over the years.

 

It's not your fault you didn't see the clip not fully seated which could have come out and caused more problems, they might not have noticed it either since they assumed it was good. A very frustrating experience that could be easily won at a small claims court. It would be nearly impossible for them to damage the differential and the pinion gear yoke doesn't always have the same slack in it do to the spider gears etc that could have some pressure on them when the wheels were in a certain position, and whether it was jacked up or not, etc. Especially with an LS rear.

 

One other question for you, does your truck have a female end of the slip yoke with a double grove it in, and does your male end have a matching double grove that fits it? I guess what I am trying to figure out for sure is what they changed. My female end has the grove my splines on the male end does not - recall what yours looks like?

 

I never had mine apart but I R&R'd hundreds of transmissions and a small percentage of them had master splines in the shaft which would only go one way. Someone will probably chime in with that info. It seems strange that only the female part has a master spline.

 

Looks like a mess.

 

Parts store also mic'd mine and searched by sizes not vehicles and nothing. I talked to Ford this morning and they assure me there is no ford truck that came off the lot from 2000 to 2002 that had different sized end caps in it's U-joint. Yes before 1997 but not after. Pretty sure what I have is half a 2002 F250 and half a 2000 Ex yoke and flange. Right now my biggest concern is getting it back on phased correctly because I marked it just at the 4 corners by each bolt thinking I had only 2 choices for reassembly 180 degrees from each other, or even 1 choice I wasn't sure exactly, but what I actually have is 16 choices and not sure my 4 marks are going to work or not. Got a new conversion joint from Napa and am putting it back together this evening, but fully expect it to be a vibrating beast if the phasing isn't correct. Then it's going to new drive shaft place to be fixed properly.

 

I really don't think the position is that important. When I was R&Ring transmissions as a job at transmission shops nobody ever paid any attention to that, nobody ever mentioned it, and I don't recall any problems stemming from it. Worst case scenario is that you would have to 180 it but I doubt it.