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Bad U-joint vid...

tRustyK5

tRustyK5

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I stopped driving my 90 Blazer originally because the U-joint at the rear of the driveshaft was starting to vibe. Decided to start the bodywork and stuff...

I have the passenger side done, and recently threw some 35's under it. I needed some cut-off disc's today and figured a short drive wasn't gonna hurt anything. Home Depot is only 2 miles from home...

On the way back that U-joint started making the most gawd-aweful sounds I've ever heard. I really wasn't sure if I was gonna get home, or lose the driveshaft. I did make it home...and my daughter took this vid of the U-joint.


I think the cross yoke is actually busted, or maybe one ear. Won't know til I take it apart, but I've never seen one with this much movement before.

Rene
 
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That same thing happened to my 84 i used to have. I think thats where the term "lucky break" comes from, lucky to make it home with broken parts!
 
It wasn't even vibrating bad when I stopped driving it. The last drive before being parked was a 25 mile freeway run...since then I've driven a total of about 4 miles and in that time it's gone from a vibe, to what you see in the vid. When I get the U-joint out I'll post up pics.

Rene
 
My Crew cab does that. I crawled in there and took a look with a flashlight and a mirror. Not a single needle bearing in that thing.
 
Well, the driveshaft side of the cross was fine. The yoke end one ear of the cross was worn into the grease passage...definitely close to a more dramatic failure.

So, I find a spare U-joint in the truck. The truck has straps at the yoke, and internal 'C'clip retainers at the driveshaft end. I get the joint installed into the driveshaft and go to bolt it up and it won't fit the yoke. :doah:

This truck is dead stock, yet it appears the cups on the original U-joint are different sizes. Larger for the driveshaft end and smaller for the yoke end. The spare joint has 4 identical cups...Time to do some searching I guess...unless anyone has some good firsthand info?

Rene
 
OK, the bizareness contiues.

The old U-joint has two different bearing cup sizes...both in diameter and depth. The smaller cups are 1.062", the larger cups are 1.125". The larger cups are approx .188" deeper and have the groove for the internal C clip retainers. The smaller cups are shallower with no grooves. This is looking like a conversion joint...

It appears to be S44 to 1310. So far I can't find a conversion joint for that though.

Rene
 
I've got a pn# now...hopefully that should be enough to get the right part. The Dana site has all the possible U-joints you could imagine by dimension, application, trade name and pn#.

Rene
 
Nice U-joint...makes me wonder if that's what mine was doing just before it blew up on me going down the freeway.

Back in 02 I was moving to Flagstaff driving my 78 k10 longbed pulling a a 14' Uhaul trailer. Going up one of the nice long grades coming out of Camp Verde on I-17 I was in 3rd gear of my sm465. Figuring I had enough road speed I shifted into 4th, let the clutch out and BAM!!!!! U-joint disintegrates and driveshaft was just beating the h*ll out of the bottom of my truck.

Pulled off and got underneath to check out the carnage. Nothing too bad. Sat there for a minute trying to figure out how I was going to get a driveshaft fixed on a sunday afternoon. Then it occurred to me...I was driving a 4x4...removed rear driveshaft...stuck in 4hi and continued on up to Flagstaff in front wheel drive. Fixed the driveshaft the next day after work. That d44, Warn hubs and np205 did great.
 
I recall selling quite a few Neapco conversion U-joints at the parts stores..haven't looked one up in decades,but the number 2-3130 seems to ring a bell,it had two different cross widths and cups on two journals were smaller than the other two were..
 
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