Trying to get the old u joints out of the shaft and yoke. I've tried c clamps, hammer with drift and soaking them for days, even tried cutting them with a sawzall (that was a duh moment). No movement at all. This is on the 88 F250 frame I am working on. The retaining rings are out. Is there something else there i am not aware of? If not, has anyone tried to heating the yoke with a torch? Ideas are always appreciated.

 

I was just there two days ago! Just keep at them -or- take the driveshaft over to a machine shop and have them pressed out. As long as the clips are out the u-joints should come out. Mine were so rusted in it took two days of PB Blaster, Heat from a torch, hammering and finally pressing to get them out; but I did.

I also had a similar "duh moment." When I could not get the new u-joints from binding when they were pressed in (because of all the rust in the bores), I decided to hone out the interior diameter of the shaft bore. Unfortunately I went a little over board, took off too much metal, and now I have my caps rotating in the bore... not a good situation!

When you clean them up be careful... if you want to clean out the bores i advise nothing harsher than sand paper and very little sanding.

Good luck,

Dan

 

i use this tool to get u-joints out with an impact wrench it works.when i did my front u-joints they were siezed in there to but this tool got them out whit a load bang.

if you are going to clean up the rust inside the yokes i use a dremel tool with a sand paper flapper wheel,removes rust not much metal. IMO

 

Yea be careful with the dremel though. That's what I used with a very high grit polishing stone, and I still managed to remove enough metal that my caps are loose. If I had to do it again I would do it with sand paper by hand.

Just my $0.02

DG

 

Careful with that ball joint press there, bigred, I've bent the ears on the driveshaft with mine a couple times

 

Thanks to all. I'll keep plugging away.

 

thats why i said use the flapper wheel.it will remove the rust and not the metal.

 

thanks i''l keep that in mind

 

I've bent them with a press too. You will know they are bent a little bit when you don't seem to have room for the clips to go back in.

 

Well. I finally got to that place i usually get to wherre I don't care if I bend or break something, I just want it finished. So I took a gear puller and cranked it until they slipped out. I don't know if I bent the ears or not but at lease it is out. thanks for all the help..

 

If you dont have the special tools just take the drive shaft off and if you have a vice put a big socket that is bigger than the u-joint but smaller than the part of the drive shaft then take a smaller socket that fits onto the ujoint cap and press those together in a vice. its hard to explain but heres a pic that will really help.

http://myural.com/Driveshaft%20Repair1%20009.jpg
[IMG]file:///Users/student/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot.jpg[/IMG][IMG]file:///Users/student/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot-1.jpg[/IMG]

 

Even though most of the Dremels have one speed (whether it has a switch or a finger trigger) the amount of time can make a difference, whether the trigger is pressed one time and it stops, or whether the Dremel is turned on for a fixed number of seconds or minutes.

I thought I heard that people were able to use a pick or a small screwdriver to clean out the groove on the yoke. Sanding blocks by hand were mentioned... and if there was a dremel brush available that could fit in that groove, some people may want a higher level of precision in cleaning the groove after removing the old snap ring that holds the U-joint in place.