Ive got a few questions for you guys. About 2 weeks ago my steady bearing went in my truck. So i pulled my Driveshaft and took it to a shop. The guy at the shop replaced all 3 u joints and the steady bearing for $150. When i went to pick up my driveshaft he told me that the slip joint behind the steady bearing was seized really good and he had a hard time getting the 2 shafts apart. He thinks this is what pulled the steady baering out of the casing. He said he cleaned the slip joint and greased it and it should be good now.

So i get the shaft home. installed in the truck...and drive about 100 feet before realising my brand new steady baering just got pulled from the casing again. So this time i drove it right to his shop. He put the truck on a hoist...pulled the shaft. Took it all apart again. Made sure the slip joint was moving freely, replaced my steady baering again. And sent me on my way. While he was installling the driveshaft he said my yoke at the rearend had some play in it. He said it would be fine to drive it for now but i should really look at getting it replaced. I didnt have the funds to replaced it right away. So i was waiting 2 weeks to get my paycheck and i was gonna replace it.

Well 2 weeks go by. I get my paycheck on tuesday of this week. On my way home from work. I am taking off from a red light. And my driveshaft comes out of the yoke at the rearend. The truck is not at my house and im planning on dropping the driveshaft today...taking it back to this guy so he can look over it for me and im gonna replace the yoke.

My question for you guys is what would have caused my driveshaft to come out of the yoke? Im starting to wonder if the slip joint is still seizing up because ive tried to move it and it takes alot of force to get it to budge.

 

When you say steady bearing I am assuming you mean carrier bearing on a two piece driveshaft.

As for coming out of the yoke, were the bolts still there, did one of them fall out, or was something broken?

About the only way for it to come out is if the U bolts break or come loose or the yoke or U joint breaks.

 

Yea i mean Carrier Bearing. Thats what i was calling it and the guy at the driveshaft shop kept correcting me and saying steady bearing.

The yoke on my truck isnt the u bolts. Its the straps.

After removing the yoke today i got a better look at it. And it looks like one of the bolts backed out just enough to allow the strap to bend...and the driveshaft came out of the yoke.

It tuns out my driveshaft is fine...and i replaced the u joint that hit the ground. My problem is finding a new yoke. The guy at the driveshaft shop told me to try a local rear end shop around here or else the dealer. I called the rearend shop and they were closed weekends and im not even going to try and call the dealership.

 

Last yoke I broke was replaced with a dealer supplied part.
That has been a while back, but the price then was not that bad.
I am thinking around 50 dollars, plus I got a new pinion nut to install the new yoke with.

A decent sized driveline shop with a parts inventory will probably have one on the shelf.

 

X2. Or maybe have it the next day. Would recommend replacing the yoke nut and getting a u joint strap kit when you put it back together.

Jason

 

Thats the other thing i was wondering. Does the yoke nut come with the new yoke...and do you get the 2 straps and 4 bolts to hold the u joint in the yoke with the kit? And the sterling in my truck has the yoke with the straps. Is it possible to get a yoke from a sterling that has the u bolts? Ive got a sterling in my backyard from a 1990 and it has the u bolt style. but my 1993 has the straps. Ive always heard that the u bolt style is better.

I guess ill phone the dealer tomorrow and see what they will charge me for a yoke. If not ill wait till monday and get ahold of the local rearend shop.

 

Hey 1957F100, I live in Vancouver. Anyway, there are 2 great shops I've dealt with locally. One is Coast Powertrain in New West who built a custom driveshaft for my lifted Bronco with Sterling axle. They do mostly industrial stuff but do automotive too. Ken runs the machine shop and knows driveshafts like the back of his hand. Their phone number is 604 520 6125.

As for transmissions, I just dealt with a really great guy named Norm who runs a shop called Mainland Transmissions in Surrey. I was just there this morning for a check up, as they rebuilt my tranny and transfer case about a month ago. Great guy, real honest, and really knows his stuff. Phone number is 604 588 9883.

I had the same problem with my Sterling, partly because it had been rebuilt poorly by a different shop. I asked Norm some Sterling stuff, and he said that there are some design issues which result in the pinion nut at times backing off. Problem too is that there are a number of different yokes used in the Sterlings, so matching them up can be a problem. He identified this morning that my yoke is 1/16" out from my u-joint size and recommended getting an asymmetrical u-joint. Anyway, try giving him a call- the guy is a wealth of info and real honest from my dealings.

 

If your ujoint is 1/16 off sounds like somebody installed the wrong one.
Some parts are better matched up than going by the vin #.

 

Re: wrong u-joint. Ok, here's the full story. I decided to swap tranny's and go back to the original T18 with granny 1st gear. I got a shop to do that as well as go through the 205 transfer case.

Get the truck back, and it shifts like crap. 205 also is leaking noticeably. Bring it back, and am told that it shifts fine, maybe that the synchos need to wear in. Problem persists, bring the truck back, told it's okay.

A few months later while heading out of town in a convoy (with friends who all drive cars, not trucks), a heavy vibration ensues, and boom, no forward motion. Driveshaft separates from the rear axle just as I'm getting on the highway. I get underneath and see that the pinion yoke bolts backed off with one of the bolts sheared right off. I pull the driveshaft, put it in 4WD, drive on front axles only and park the truck, while I (embarassingly) get a ride from one of the other friends, who drives a BMW. Uggh!

When I get home I try to remove the broken stud with what I though was a great tool from Canadian Tire. It was a stud extractor with self tapping drill. I put it in my 1/2" air drill, line it up, slowly ease on the trigger, and within a fraction of a second the thing snaps on me. So now I have a tool grade steel stud inside of my yoke. I spent hours trying to drill through that before giving up.

I (mistakenly) bring the truck back to the same shop that did the the tranny work. They try to remove the stud, with no luck either. They tell me it's cheaper to replace the yoke by the time shop labour kicks in. So I get a phone call later saying that no one in town has a yoke that matches, and that they have to special order from California, at a cost of about $300. They go ahead and do it and I pay that plus labour.

A few months later (I don't drive the truck much in city), I'm driving out of town, and about 100 miles out I get a REALLY nasty vibration. I stop, get out, and find that the driveshaft bolts at the transfer case end have backed out. I spend some time tightening them up and start driving. Problem is that the vibration is still bad, but I have to be in another town about 260 miles from my home, by evening. So I keep driving.

By the time I finally get there, the truck is just nasty, and I'm afraid the driveshaft will just shear off. I do my thing in town and go to a Canadian Tire, who charge me a 1/2 hour's labour to tell me that they can't do anything for me as my truck is too modified(!). I then go to a Speedy Muffler who spend most of the day rebuilding my CV joint and replacing u-joints. So I'm stuck out of town for an extra day but manage to hop back.

When I get home I take the driveshaft out and take it to Coast Powertrain, who rebuild it to spec as it was taken out of the truck. I put it in and there is a huge difference- no vibration. But I'm sick of the tranny shifting like crap, and Coast recommends Norm at Mainland Transmission. He rebuilds my tranny and transfer case, and it shifts really nice now. Told me that aftermarket jobber syncho rings suck and that there was wear on some of my gears and shifter. Replaced everything with either new or mint-used parts for a really good price. Told me to come back in a month for a check up, found a transfer case leak (205's are bad for that), and fixed the leak no-charge this morning. That's when he told me about the 1/16 tolerance. He tried a few suppliers but couldn't round anything up while I was there, and recommending going back to Coast to see if they could supply me with a cross-style (2 ends different) u-joint, which I am going to do pronto.

So the moral is, the tranny and TC were not rebuilt well the first time with the other shop and they didn't bolt up the driveshaft properly afterwards. This lead to the pinion-yoke failure, which in turn lead to what seems to be a case of the wrong size yoke being ordered and installed. All of this has cost me in the thousands of dollars to start getting back right again. The last step here is to either get a new yoke or cross style u-joint. I have to think about what will be easiest for parts replacement while away from big cities with major parts suppliers.

So after all this you can see why I sing the praises of Mainland Transmission and Coast Powertrain. FYI Coast did a job for me a while ago on my old Toyota 4x4 with a Chev 350 V8 and TH350 tranny. I had that truck for about 11 years as a daily driver, and I'm not sure that I ever had to so much as replace a u-joint on that truck. If I did, it was only once, though I can't recall.

My truck runs on propane and Norm from Mainland Trans gave me the number of someone he said does good work. I used to deal with B&M Supply in Burnaby who were a great shop, but they're not around anymore. If the guy that Norm recommended works out good, feel free to contact me. BTW, I have a stroked 460 in my Bronco and run dual Impco mixers, which is why I'm looking for some propane stuff.

Sorry for the lengthy explanation, but hey, you asked!

 

I wouldn't wory about the "conversion" u-joint.
I've used a few of them, always got them from NAPA because they actually knew what I was talking about when I went in to get one.
If you're worried about replacements just buy 2 and pack the extra with you.

 

It is possible it is the right yoke ford used some of these ujoints I have made several trips back to the partshouse because they gave me the what the book called for ant it would fit one side and not the other. you may have to get your measure every thing to get the right one but a spare ujoint would be cheaper than a new yoke and any parts house should have them once you know what joint need.

 

This is from someone with a very mixed parts truck.

When you change to a non stock part, write the number down in a notebook that stays in the truck and only has truck info in it.

That way you can say I need a U joint, this is the manufacturer name and part number.

It is usually easier to cross reference parts numbers than it is to match parts when they fail.
I have the Spicer numbers for every U joint in my truck, and it seems everyone can cross reference Spicer numbers to what they carry.

I had to laugh the last time I had my truck alignment set.
I forgot to tell them I had changed the front axle.
The mechanic was standing under the front of my truck holding a tie rod end for an 86 44 IFS axle, and had a very strange look on his face since the front axle is a 92 Dana 60.
One tie rod end was 6" long, the other one was several feet long.

The sad but funny part was he did not even pick up on the solid axle versus the IFS axle.