Which U joints do you run???

[old_man]

I've never broken a u-joint where it didn't fubar the shaft.

 

[Beezil]

i buy the cheep napa u joints ,i keep an extra one in the glove box. I would rather break a 10 dollar u joint than an axle shaft . but thats just me

you don't have the luxury of deciding what breaks.......


and all of us can tell you haven't broken anything that gives you the experience to post on a thread like this.

 

[Northern Pride]

How is a u-joint easy to fix on the trail?!
When a u-joint breaks it usually takes the shafts with it so why run a weak u-joint in a strong shaft?

There are plenty of people who will argue that both ways! to each his own!

 

[OT]

I have 1 spare u-joint of both sizes in the box. I figure maybe someone could use them sometime.

However, I also have complete long side and a short side assemblies strapped to my rack.

Why risk it?

 

[FarmerMatt]

There are plenty of people who will argue that both ways! to each his own!

It's pretty rare that a joint would fail without taking out the shafts. Even in the pic I posted above, the joint didn't fail, but the ears on the "good" side shaft are still screwed. They're bent bad enough that I couldn't get the cross out without a torch & those are Warns. I can't count how many joints I've seen fail & I can recall only a couple times where the shafts were still desent. You're much better off carrying full spares.

Matt

 

[woody]

It's pretty true. Most every time I've seen em fail, it's a 2 for 1 deal... (two shafts and the UJ) I caught a break once... only took a factory UJ & stub, but that's rare/lucky.

It's more courteous on the trail to just toss in a spare inner & outer(+hub) & move on than to go doing UJ replacement surgery. Maybe after everyone is out of spare ax/uj combos then start salvage rehabbing stuff.

 

[RobertF]

I've broken the spider gears in my detroit twice now.....

I've had a couple of Detroits, and only had to rebuild one, but to my knowledge, none of them have spider gears, wouldn't be a Detroit Locker with them.

Just needling you for a monentary slip, I'm sure you meant the coupler/drivers where damaged.
This happened to mine from the unloading shock of the axle/Ujoint breaking.
I'm sure a cheaper LunchBox locker can be taken out (shredded) even easier.

Bottom line, two or three replacement parts in my Detroit cost almost as much as a whole new unit. Is that worth saving a few $ on your shafts and joints if you know they aren't up to your requirements?

 

[BrettM]

I've had a couple of Detroits, and only had to rebuild one, but to my knowledge, none of them have spider gears, wouldn't be a Detroit Locker with them.

Just needling you for a monentary slip, I'm sure you meant the coupler/drivers where damaged.
This happened to mine from the unloading shock of the axle/Ujoint breaking.
I'm sure a cheaper LunchBox locker can be taken out (shredded) even easier.

Bottom line, two or three replacement parts in my Detroit cost almost as much as a whole new unit. Is that worth saving a few $ on your shafts and joints if you know they aren't up to your requirements?

I run 760x joints in stock D44 shafts. I just spit one cap out of a joint on the Rubicon and it bent the ears of the shafts enough to not get a new joint back in. I had a real nice fit with the caps in the shafts and put some high-strength loc-tite on it, and it still spit the cap first trip out. I have them tack-welded all the way around now.

 

[Beezil]

I've had a couple of Detroits, and only had to rebuild one, but to my knowledge, none of them have spider gears, wouldn't be a Detroit Locker with them.

Just needling you for a monentary slip, I'm sure you meant the coupler/drivers where damaged.
This happened to mine from the unloading shock of the axle/Ujoint breaking.
I'm sure a cheaper LunchBox locker can be taken out (shredded) even easier.

Bottom line, two or three replacement parts in my Detroit cost almost as much as a whole new unit. Is that worth saving a few $ on your shafts and joints if you know they aren't up to your requirements?

You needler! yeah< i don't know what they call those fiddly dinks, but I have two whole sets of them now, courtesy of detroit customer service. When I ran into the first problem, they sent me a whole load of replacement parts, icluding a whole new updated solinoid pack and shift cover, stuff I didn't need, and multiple sets of stuff I needed. I figure I can keep breaking stuff in that thing, and I have repair parts on hand.....got all the stuff for free.

 

[Beezil]

BTW, I wouldn't run another stock/760 set up WITHOUT welding the caps in place.

I believe this is a stronger set up to be sure.....

and since u-joints take out shafts, you'll never have to grind those welds!

 

[XJJPR]

I run stock shafts still and have never broken a u-joint(297 or otherwise) but have broken a fair amount of shafts.

Jes

Fair amount of shafts???

What in one day????




hinkley

 

[Jes]

Fair amount of shafts???

What in one day????




hinkley

Oh give me a break(no pun intended )!
Four shafts in four years isn't a bad record considering how often I hit the rocks.

Jes

 

[XJJPR]

Oh give me a break(no pun intended )!
Four shafts in four years isn't a bad record considering how often I hit the rocks.

Jes

Come on, I think I've seen you do 4 in one day!


hinkley

Oh wait that was Rick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[lesslimited]

BTW, I wouldn't run another stock/760 set up WITHOUT welding the caps in place.

I believe this is a stronger set up to be sure.....

and since u-joints take out shafts, you'll never have to grind those welds!

Worked for a day and a half at the Badlands for me. Should I blame the guy that did the welding?
http://community.webshots.com/photo/93067076/170204695TlrcPl

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

Just curious on this welding vs full circle clips. Which is better and why? Seems to me a full circle clip should hold the u-joint cap in place just as tightly as welding the outside and then you can remove it if the shaft is ok. I must say that I have broken the little lip that the clips ride against though. I've never really broken a u-joint, but I have broken the lip that the clips ride on a few times. More often than not the joint just goes bad from wear. Muddy water gets in there and before you know it things are sloppy and dry. I've also had the needle bearings crush or snap or something but that is usually in combination with wear. I was thinking of trying these joints since the needle bearings have been replaced with bushings, but I've seen brass bushings wear really quickly in other applications too, so I just don't know: http://www.sn-fab.com/images/retail/ujoint.html

If I got those Tom LeBlanc joints, I would rather run full c-clips than weld them in place just in case I ever wanted to remove them. The clip shoulder can still break with the clips though, so maybe fully welding them is the way to go. Jeff

 

[Jes]

Well, on a stock shaft that's expendable I think it's stronger to weld the caps. The first stock shaft I broke was 2 days after BOTWII while I was on a trail in AZ. I had full circle clips on the shafts and I shot a cap off right at the end of the trail. The difference between stock shafts and the Warns(etc.) is the aftermarket alloy stuff doesn't stretch like the stock junk does, that's why it's better to weld the stockers.
In my opinion it is worthless to run anything but a stock style U-joint in a stock shaft.

Jes

 

[BrettM]

okay, let's talk about welding a little more


what is everyone's strategy? you obviously want a strong weld, but don't want to melt the joints innards, so how do you do it?

I just did mine by doing about 8 little spot welds around each cap, a little more than a tack weld. I also did it by doing one or two on each cap then going to a different cap and the other shaft so that they had a little more time to cool between welds. I haven't wheeled with those yet, so I don't know how they'll hold yet.

 

[lesslimited]

This is what mine looked like last week
http://community.webshots.com/photo/93067076/170402552Jsrazu
The pic in my last post is what it looks like now

 

[BrettM]

did it spit a cap before the other carnage?

 

[lesslimited]

I think it just ripped the ears off the stub shaft.
I picked up all the pieces I could find, but haven't had a chance to study them yet.