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Driveshaft halves installation (SOLVED)

iHateVolvoPeople

Active member
Joined
Feb 1, 2014
Location
Midwest
From post #95 on this page:
SOLVED: installed an m47 driveshaft from the junkyard for $27. It was from a 1992 car and had the arrows on each shaft unlike my 1993 cars. In fact, the arrows looked to be off a couple splines, and the center support bearing made noise when I spun it by hand, but i left it as is and all vibrations are completely gone from 0-90mph:e-shrug: haven’t had it past that but that’s good enough for me. I will most likely have to replace the center bearing at some point but for now we will consider this solved. Thanks for all the advice, hopefully you guys have better luck than me:lol:

I had replaced a u joint which fixed my low end vibration under load, but vibrated around 45+mph. It was tolerable but annoying. I tried balancing the DS with hose clamps but nothing worked. Perhaps I needed different thickness c clips in the u joint as someone mentioned, or I needed to knock the cups back (which I thought I did). Lots of great advice posted in this thread, but a JY trip saved the day.

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93 245 m47

Just ‘replaced’ u joint (oh boy get ready for those pictures later on:roll: ) and I marked the driveshaft halves before disassembly. I then dropped the rear shaft, did u joint, now I can’t get the male spline to slide back into the female spline. Only goes on one of 2 ways or what? I’m pusbing pretty hard. Plz send halp

Here’s some pics. Pic 1 and 2 are great. Got both sides in on the DS and the c clips as well. I sprayed PB blaster on the caps before inserting. I was told to put them in clean and dry but I didn’t and it worked great.
kaYFVcO_d.jpg


EbSNw3D_d.jpg


Pics 3 and 4 are the pinion flange side. By the time I got the grease zirk (sp?) side installed, I had to press so hard it cracked the opposing side. Should’ve used lube:roll: so now I get to pay more money for a new u joint, go through the whole process over again, and then pay someone to balance the DS. Car will probably hopefully be for sale/crushed shortly after.
B2SEcmW_d.jpg


Nx6d8GW_d.jpg


Currently running with NO c clips on the pinion flange side, as well as with that large crack. **** it
 
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Yeah I got it in but by the time I got done ****ing with it, my paint marker had worn off and it was installed incorrectly. So now it shakes like 60mph+. Have to take it back off at a later point to install ANOTHER new u joint. Time to get some pics
 
Yeah I got it in but by the time I got done ****ing with it, my paint marker had worn off and it was installed incorrectly. So now it shakes like 60mph+. Have to take it back off at a later point to install ANOTHER new u joint. Time to get some pics

Redwood, did you refer this guy to brick board yet? I feel like he?s been here long enough to know better.
 
every one Ive put ujoints in had arrows stamped on them. They are hard to see but I bet they are there, find them and line them up. There is factory paint mark sometimes too.
 
I've used the ones oreillys sells. I had ordered the gmb brand but they would not go in. The oreilly brand are around $10 a piece.
 
Redwood, did you refer this guy to brick board yet? I feel like he’s been here long enough to know better.

Not yet but he's still young enough to think that he knows it all so that may be a fools errand.

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Bet one of the needle bearings fell down on the cap, because you didn't set them in nasty black axle grease.

Nx6d8GW_d.jpg


That chicken fat 'grease' they come packed in doesn't really hold them in place, and it's lubricating qualities are dubious at best.


Also you need to set the cups back against the circlips with a dead blow hammering on the flange and prop shaft or it won't articulate properly and will vibrate anyway.
 
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:lol: I was doing it all correctly until I wasn?t. Apparently a simple u joint replacement is far beyond my capabilities.
Don't beat up on yourself too hard. A "simple u joint replacement" is really not so simple. There are a lot of ways to screw it up. There's a lot of finesse to it. Doesn't seem like it should but there is. Best to learn from watching someone with good experience do a few, asking questions along the way.

At least (hopefully) you didn't bend the ears.
 
I had a significant learning experience building my custom two piece shaft for the V8 conversion. In a six month effort to completely eliminate shaft vibration my shaft balance guy coughed up the fact that there are three standard snap ring thicknesses.

The U-joints and included snap rings I was working with bound the bearings far too tightly creating vibrations.

The cracked cap would appear to be a hint that you have this kind of problem.
 
Yeah I have lots of learning to do. On the 2 caps that I used a squirt of PB blaster on, everything went flawlessly. Seems like without a touch of lube, they wanted to bind. Is it okay to use a tiny bit of lube? No Ken believe it or not the needle bearings were all properly seated. Initially they weren’t and I had to press the cap back out, fix, and reinsert. Plan was to add the good stuff when I’m able to borrow a friends grease gun.

On the bright side the horrendous vibrations are gone under load from the old bad u joint:lol:
 
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Yes a smearing of white lithium is a good thing to use when pressing the cups.

Keeping the sockets lined up in the vise is of paramount importance as well, any time it starts to bind stop take a look and adjust as needed.

Strange usually the zerk fitting is on the 'cross' not the cup so it supplies all the bearings with one fitting.

Also you'll need to have the zerks pointing towards the prop shaft not the flange or you won't be able to get the grease gun on there.

If the U joints have been let go too long the bores for the cups will need to be de-burred and corrected with a chain saw file or similar or things won't press well either.
 
Yes a smearing of white lithium is a good thing to use when pressing the cups.

Keeping the sockets lined up in the vise is of paramount importance as well, any time it starts to bind stop take a look and adjust as needed.

Strange usually the zerk fitting is on the 'cross' not the cup so it supplies all the bearings with one fitting.

Also you'll need to have the zerks pointing towards the prop shaft not the flange or you won't be able to get the grease gun on there.

If the U joints have been let go too long the bores for the cups will need to be de-burred and corrected with a chain saw file or similar or things won't press well either.
If I would?ve known it was *okay* to use a small smear of grease from the beginning, we wouldn?t have a broken u joint:roll:

Bores were all good. I cleaned them up a bit and used a pick to clean the c clip grooves.

Good info there about the grease fitting, didn?t even think of that.

I?m not worried about not being able to correctly install the next u joint, but i am worried about driveshaft balancing. I want it to not vibrate. I may pull one from the JY if I can find a manual 240
 
There's only two orientations of that u joint, why don't you just reinstall it in the only other possible orientation.
 
There's only two orientations of that u joint, why don't you just reinstall it in the only other possible orientation.

Nah it?s fine considering the one that?s in there is greased from a cap and not the body, but for the next new u joint I will consider orientation. Thanks guys.
 
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