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Converting from u-joint strap to u-bolt???

I know this is pretty old... Has anyone else done this since? Yesterday I picked up a pair of u-bolts to use on my '00 8.25 (neapco 1-0089) and they fit the u-joint like a glove, but they look too narrow to fit the yoke properly. In other words, the U is too tight, and the ends are too close together to go into the holes in the yoke unless I bend the u bolts further apart or drill over sized holes in the yoke. Anybody have this problem?
 
Well, I'm trying to buy some time for a yoke with some play... The whole thing is less than ideal, but I need it to get me by until I can change the yoke. The straps don't tighten on the current yoke, and the joint moves side to side a bit. I figure I can at least get it tight for now with the u bolts. Sloppy, yes. But it will probably be fine for a bit.
 
I did it to my 8.25. Had no plans to, but I was driving to work one morning and pulling out of my neighborhood at 6am the straps let go and I had a driveshaft flailing around under the jeep. Eventually got it home and the first thing I did was drill the holes out and put new ubolts in. Working well for the past year. Eventually there will be a new axle under there, but for now I think the less than ideal fit of the ubolts is more ideal than the straps letting go under soft throttle on public streets.
 
I would through-bolt it before I would ubolt with a non fitting ubolt... just drill the holes out to fit a 5/16 bolt as a through-bolt, then use a nut and bolt. They are reduced head bolts from the factory since there really isn't much space to work with, though, and getting the nut on is a pain. My 8.25's old yoke had one corner through bolted from a PO and it was always annoying until I ended up blowing the rest of the yoke up on the trail and replaced it with a non-broken one.
 
The threads aren't the problem... The problem is that the straps don't tighten on the u-joint enough. Nobody had a problem with the hole spacing when they did the conversion? Maybe I'll try another set of straps and another joint before drilling it out, I figured it would be a direct fit once I drilled it out.
 
I've never had that issue except when I reused a set of straps - technically you're supposed to replace the straps and bolts every time. I'll reuse em if they appear to be in good shape and actually hold the ujoint, if they're too stretched out they need replacing. Dana/Spicer part number for the full kit is 2-70-18x, they're like 3-5 bucks a set on northerndrivetrain iirc.
 
The Iron Rock Offroad kit worked very well and came with new straps. For $75 it's not bad, and if you old yoke is still in good condition you could drill the holes out and keep it as a spare for the trail.
 
I looked up the specs... The neapco 1-0089 is roughly .10" narrower than the spicer 2-94-58x so I think the spicer part should work fine. I think it's because the neapco is for a 1310 joint, which is the actual joint size, while the spicer is for a 1330 joint. Spicer does make a part which is the same as the neapco 1-0089, but it's obviously the same dimension, and presumably the proper kit for an actual 1310 u-bolt style yoke.
 
1310 vs 1330 U-joints have exactly the same diameter caps, the only difference is how wide the cross is. So that's not it - it's probably because whatever company uses u-bolts on a 1330 ujoint (Ford?) yoke used a different bolt hole spacing in the yoke when they did so.

Isn't standardization great?! :laugh2:
 
Re: Re: Converting from u-joint strap to u-bolt???

kastein said:
1310 vs 1330 U-joints have exactly the same diameter caps, the only difference is how wide the cross is. So that's not it - it's probably because whatever company uses u-bolts on a 1330 ujoint (Ford?) yoke used a different bolt hole spacing in the yoke when they did so.

Isn't standardization great?! :laugh2:
Click to expand...

1330's actually do come in small cap and large cap sizes.
 
Really?! WTF. Why would they call it the same u-joint size when it's different?

edit: looks like it's mostly Fords that end up with "1330 Special" - two caps are a different diameter. Now if that aint the dumbest thing I've ever heard... learn something new every day. Thanks for correcting me on that.
 
Last edited:
Yep Ford 1204 ... The bastard 1330. There was also a 1330 that had all 4 caps that were large.

When I drove my Bronco I just swapped the slip shaft and used a common standard 1330.
 
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