Sometimes I hate this car. Nothing is ever routine. NOTHING! Proven today with a "routine" U-joint replacement. Yanked out the driveshaft, removed the front u-joint. Put new joint and caps onto the driveshaft. Put one cap on the yoke. Go to put the second... WTH? It never gets enough clearence for the clip. Disassemble. One cap goes who the hell knows where. Go to Oreillys and get another joint. Take the old (new) one off the drive shaft, and put the new one on. Put one cap on the yoke and go to put the second and once again... Not enough clearence for the clip. I *think* I see the problem. Theres a small gap between the yoke and the OTHER side of the U-joint. Just as I go to fix that I move the yoke. What? Feels like a pin already jumped shipped. Move around some more. Yep! Somethings deffintely wrong! It's NOT smooth. I decided to quite there. I was about ready to throw a hammer through something Gah. Any tips before a window gets broken in the moring? huh:
Remove the caps, make sure all the needle bearings are in place, put a heavy coat of wheel bearing grease in the cap to hold them in place.
Ditto, you're being too rough in installing the cups. Got to be gentle so as not to disturb the needle bearings. I do this on a bench vise and press em in. Even then one will occasionally get out of place and gum up the works.
The old saying Slow=smooth, smooth=fast is true here. Of course, smooth=ball joint press too rather than a hammer. Also make sure to go around the retainer clip grooves with a nice sharp pic or bent nail, pocket knife, etc, to clean out all the crud. Sometimes the clip rides over a bunch of dirt and will not engage in the outside of the groove. Cleaver
when we did mine we put two sockets on the ends of just the caps and set in a vise and tightened it down perfectly... but believe me, we did everything wrong possible at first and make sure you put it back in the car the same way it came out
