CTM Joints

Well I finally had a little time to play on the rig after the big harvest push. Took a look under the rig & found a fragged front shaft joint. It must of happened up on the last little run on Bald Mountain where Mr. Goat blew up his CTM. I'm debating with myself as to whether I should upgrade to the CTM's or stick with the 760's. My current joints have been in there for about 2 years, full snapringed, & with Warn shafts. I've heard or seen several people blow up CTM's which tells me they are still not bulletproof. The lifetime warrenty is cool, but I can replace a whole bunch of 760's to equal the price of one CTM. What's the real skinny on them & would you think the mall wheeling I do would warrent them. I'm not one who is a throttle jockey, although I push the rig to make it up any obsticle I try. Also who has the best price on the buggers.

Matt

Farmer.

I'm in the same boat.

even though its nice to have an axle that uses easily obtainable junkyard spares, breaking u-joints and taking out shafts along with them is no fun!

was wondering if you did any legwork trying to find out where you would buy your joints from, and if you knew of any sweet package deals for either warn or superior shafts along with them.....

Matt,
we all know you drive like a wuss, but Jeni gets it big time.

Go with the CTMs. I finally got some and broke a 3/4 ton hub of warns which is alot easier to change on the trail than a joint. I just wish I had a spare hub at the time.

mark
orgs mfg

matt this is totally OT, what is your main harvest?

Matt, nothing to add technically about the CTMs, but I know that PIG(screenname on Pirate) of www.polyperformance.com runs a package deal that seems to be pretty decent. You might email him and see what the deal is. HTH

Ary

There are 2 nice things about CTM's, other than the ovbvious:
1) You do not have to deal with needle bearings on installation.
2) Every CTM I have seen break has broken clean, with no collateral damage.
Paul

I was sick of changing broken joints and axles. I have a manual transmission. I'm not a very good driver. Enough said.

The price is pretty tightly controlled. Jack's price is PIG's price (unless you get a package where he cuts you a break on shafts).

I got mine from Jack at CTM.

CRASH

paul, I'm curious about the clean break...

yer saying that ctms usually don't take the ears off too?

I'm assuming this is on quality shafts like warn or superior?

when goatmans broke, did it take his shafts out too?

what shafts do you run anyway goat?

farmer, I certainly don't want to mess the thread up, but is there room on the thread to talk about which axle shafts are better paired-up with ctms?

i'm curious about that too.

another middle of the road option is the 760s with a bushing to replace the needle bearings. I think they are around $50 a piece. The guy that makes them suggests welding them in all the way around, and then the shaft typically breaks before the joint. Not that you want to do that with warn shafts though If your harvest was pretty good I would go with the CTMs though.

What broke? cap, needle bearings or cross? My 297s still seem to be holding up I now have 4 tacks on each cap. Crash (I bought mine used from him, dicey I know ) originally had one tack on each cap but a couple of caps broke the weld and twisted maybe 3 degrees. I think I am pretty easy on my junk though.

btw missed you folks at moab

Beezil said:

paul, I'm curious about the clean break...

yer saying that ctms usually don't take the ears off too?

I'm assuming this is on quality shafts like warn or superior?

when goatmans broke, did it take his shafts out too?

what shafts do you run anyway goat?

farmer, I certainly don't want to mess the thread up, but is there room on the thread to talk about which axle shafts are better paired-up with ctms?

i'm curious about that too.

Click to expand...

I can answer,

Yes that is what he means,

Yes they are all on good alloy shafts,

Goat didn't take out the shafts when his broke,

Goat runs alloys, think warns

CTM says they MUST be run WITH alloy shafts, inner and outer!

mark
orgs mfg

I've only seen one ctm break (inperson that is) and that was at the VA state rock crawling comp thispast weekend. A pro class rig blew a ctm and a warn shaft on a 60. and considering i was under a TJ about a 100 yards away when it broke it was a hell of a bang. but it was a nice 401 that was powering the rig.

CRASH said:

I was sick of changing broken joints and axles. I have a manual transmission. I'm not a very good driver. Enough said.

The price is pretty tightly controlled. Jack's price is PIG's price (unless you get a package where he cuts you a break on shafts).

I got mine from Jack at CTM.

CRASH

Click to expand...

Andy, I believe that Jack stopped selling direct. That's what I've heard on Pirate. I think the best price around on the joints alone is 185 and IIRC MSRP is 200. HTH

Ary

CTM's can be had for less

CTM's can be had for less

Click to expand...

Tell us how, o' wise one.

I've had a few folks been talking to me about making bushings for the 760's. I do believe it's a viable alternative. I've had my 760's in for 2 years now. I popped them in right when they came out. I'm sure it's time for them to go though. Don't gimme your hub jokes, there's definately something wrong with that spindle or the bearings.

That being said, I'm working a deal with someone to get me some CTMs. Mainly because I wanna be as cool as everybody else. The other reason being the direction that the hardcore obstacles are going. Everything seems to be going super vertical which requires the use of horsepower.

Where, pray, can one score bushed ujoints? Do they take grease in an elbow, or are they end-lubed like the CTMs?

5-90

http://www.longfieldsuperaxles.com/

They're $70 a piece, but have also been heat treated. They're end-lubed like CTMs.

Captain America's u-joints with bushings

http://www.sn-fab.com/images/retail/ujoint.html

Longfield's u joints with bushings

http://www.longfieldsuperaxles.com/

My shafts are still intact. It looks as though I crushed the needle bearings as the caps are still neatly full circle snap ringed in place. The cross seems to be intact also. I haven't had time to pull it all apart yet. I'm using warn shafts with 760 joints. I assume I did this in the exact same spot as Goatman blew up his CTM. We took the exact same line up the obsticle with me leading. I made it up & Richards blew up trying to get up. We pulled the rigs out of 4 wheel right after that & I haven't looked at it since. The part I'm having a hard time dealing with is the price tag of the CTM's. The cheapest I've found from a google search is $185 ea. If I can get 2 years of life out of a $20 joint than I could buy 20 years worth of joints before it would equal the amount paid for the CTM's. These joints lasted 2 years & I know I've had them in longer than Richards had his 44 in the front with CTM's although he go's out wheeling more than I do. Who has those caps Gary? Being that the needle bearings were my problem that might be just the ticket in my situation. Yeah I'm cheap at heart & yes I carry a full set of spares.

Beezil,
I think most would say go warn or go home. I'm happy with mine.

As to the farming question... At this point are main products are almonds & wine grapes although we've got a bunch of young pistachios starting to come into production. In our spare time we play with wheat, cotton, alfalfa, & beans.

Matt

To answer a couple of questions, I run Warn shafts. Jack has said in competition rigs the Warn shafts have been the strongest, but the new Superior shafts have just come out and they may be just as good.

When my CTM broke, it only broke one trunion, and it was a clean break. The other three trunions were intact, and other than a small nick on the edge of the yoke (which I ground off), the axle yokes were fine.

A common contributor to breaking a CTM, and it was true in my case, is the yokes hitting each other because of the steering stops not being adjusted properly. When I took mine apart, there were marks on the inside of the yokes where they had been hitting. That situation has been resolved. Also, the current CTM's are cryogenically treated, which Jack says makes them 20% stronger. He replaced my broken one with a cryo treated joint, and told me that if I wanted to take out the other joint and send it to him he would cryo treat it.

Matt, just do it. A cryo treated 760 with brass bushings will work pretty good, but if you ever broke one can you imagine what we'd say?

OneTonXJ said:

Tell us how, o' wise one.

hardcore obstacles are going. Everything seems to be going

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because i sell them