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U-Joint C-Clips

M4Madness

NAXJA Forum User
I am at my wit's end. I am attempting to change the axle u-joint on a Dana 30 in my '96, and it's a nightmare. Heck, pulling the hub was child's play, and I had the axle out in well under a half hour. But this u-joint is something else. It is a factory original one with 160,000 miles on it.

I soaked all the c-clips in Kroil, and the two on the inner axle section came right off with a few taps of a hammer on a straight screwdriver. I cannot for the life off me get the two on the outer axle section to budge. I can't seem to get a good solid hit with the axle dust shield in the way. If I can get these last two c-clips off, I can remove this danged u-joint from the axle sections. Any suggestions?
 
First off.. do you have ABS? The tone rings make the next part more difficult.

Go over to the vise. Open it up enough that the inner axle's ears sit on the vise jaws while one of the stub shaft ears sits down in the gap. Now give the stub shaft a whack with a BFH just to the outside of the ujoint cup. This is where the ABS ring gets in the way. Now flip the whole assembly 180 and give it a whack on the other side. The snap rings should now be easy to remove. Then with the rings out, go put it back in the vise and take the works apart with the hammer.

To clarify: you're not using the vise as a press, and you're not even tightening down on any part of the shaft assembly with the vise. It is only being used as an adjustable-width rest.

I can almost guarantee with a rusty enough shaft/ ujoint combo, using a 'proper' press will distort the ears of the shaft. The BFH and vise combo prevents that.
 
...Then with the rings out, go put it back in the vise and take the works apart with the hammer.

To clarify: you're not using the vise as a press, and you're not even tightening down on any part of the shaft assembly with the vise. It is only being used as an adjustable-width rest.

I can almost guarantee with a rusty enough shaft/ ujoint combo, using a 'proper' press will distort the ears of the shaft. The BFH and vise combo prevents that.

Thanks for the pointer. I've got this same job to do in the next week :thumbup:
 
First off.. do you have ABS?

No, sir. Just your standard non-disconnect D30. I'm getting a weird rotational sound near the driver's side front tire that appeared after I had a very reputable shop install new gears front and rear. That particular shop has been in business well over 20 years, and does nothing but differential work. The owner himself did the install on my XJ, and is highly recommended by various people I trust.

He claimed that both of my hub units appeared fine, and my testing of them for excessive play has led me to believe that they are fine as well. BUT, I will probably swap them out for Timken units tomorrow just to eliminate any suspicions. The rear side of the hub I have off shows signs of minor leakage, as it looks like an oily residue covered in dust. I've read that if they leak, they need to be replaced. He replaced the passenger side axle u-joint, but said that the driver's side was fine. Why he didn't replace the pair is beyond me. So, here I am trying to replace this sole u-joint.

JJacobs, let me make sure I understand your instructions. Do you want me to strike each of the ears of the axle stub's yoke between the u-joint cap and the radius of the ear?
 
Looked on Google to see if I could find pics to make it clear, no dice. All those links were people doing it the hard way using the vise as a press. You want to hit the shafts on the flat next to the shoulder, between the ujoint cap and where it curves down to the shaft diameter. Basically you're hitting right on the strongest part of the shaft's yoke.
 
Okay, 180 degrees from where I thought you meant. I need to hit the flat section of the yoke next to the cap before it starts curving down to where it meet the shaft. I saw on online tutorial that showed them using a ball joint press to remove the c-clips in addition to removing the entire u-joint. They said to put it in the press, tighten the screw slightly to put inward pressure on one of the caps, remove its c-clip, then repeat on the other side. I wouldn't have thought that you'd get enough compression from an installed u-joint to loosen an internal c-clip. I'll probably be trying many different methods tomorrow, but I hope that the first one does it.
 
There's a whole art to ujoints, and most of it involves a BFH. You wouldn't believe what a good whack will do. Another trick: usually when everything's assembled and clips are in place the ujoint will turn tight in one direction or the other. Strike the beefy part of the yoke both ways on the axis that's binding and it'll free right up. Only takes thousandths.

Same thing with the tutorial you mentioned. That will work too but odds are just the force from the press won't be enough, it'll need to be supplemented with a good whack to move enough to relieve the pressure.
 
And I can only imagine how the parts look in MD. The rust belt stuff looks ridiculous compared to the mostly rust free metal we have out here.

:)

TJ_D30_Shafts.sized.jpg


I beat the ears around the u-joints with a hammer to bounce the caps out then cleaned up the shafts, and installed new hubs and joints

TJ_D30_Shafts_Dressed.sized.jpg


Did the same thing on a rusty driveshaft a couple of days ago.
 
Well, I got the u-joint swapped. I smacked both sides of the yoke with a big hammer, then put it in a vise and knocked out the two remaining c-clips with a hammer and screwdriver. I don't know if it was the hammer blows or the vise holding more securely, but I'm thankful to God that I got them off.

I bought a new u-joint, and when I went to install it, it was way too small. The auto parts store asked, "ABS or non-ABS?", to which I replied, "Non-ABS." The computer shows the ABS u-joints as being the larger 297 ones, even though I don't have ABS. Pretty strange.
 
We supported the bottom of each yoke with a large socket, then used a smaller socket to drive the u-joint inward. We then flipped it over and repeated the procedure. To install it, we started caps on opposing sides, then tightened them slowly in a vise until they were seated and the c-clips could be installed.
 
To install it, we started caps on opposing sides, then tightened them slowly in a vise until they were seated and the c-clips could be installed.
It's better to fully seat and push one side in before doing the other side, otherwise the bearings can fall into the center of the cap and get crushed. If the first cap stays on the joint when the second cap is installed this cant happen as easily.
 
JJacobs, ehall - you should see my old shafts... 1/8" layer of rust chunks came off when I started smacking them. The shafts visibly neck down from the rusting right outside the dust shields. I kept them, but only as spares.
 
JJacobs, ehall - you should see my old shafts... 1/8" layer of rust chunks came off when I started smacking them. The shafts visibly neck down from the rusting right outside the dust shields. I kept them, but only as spares.

When was your last Tetanus shot? :D
 
January 7th of last year... at approximately 1:30AM :roflmao:. ER visit for stitches and I was out of date on it, so they fixed that. My friends joke that my Jeeps are tetanus carriers, but I'm slowly working on removing the rust...
 
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