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Moog Super Strength U-joints

Blue85

Blue85

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Anybody have experience with these? I like that you can grease them through one of the end caps. I do hate the little check valve fittings, but if you're home, I guess you can swap to a regular zerk to grease it, then swap back.

3


I have one in a front axleshaft and one in my rear driveshaft now because I haven't been keeping a spare Spicer on the shelf like I should.
 
Napa is selling those now.....look like the same old junk precision brand u joints that napa has been selling forever.
 
ANY greaseable joint is weaker than solid cross joint would be .

unless each cap has its own fitting like some special joints do .
 
This is the 232 (1350 Super Strength)
4


This is the 331 (1350 standard)

HPE_331.jpg
 
even if the cross has the bump but no hole for fitting its prob cross drilled already .

just buy spicer life series .
 
sweetk30 said:
even if the cross has the bump but no hole for fitting its prob cross drilled already .

just buy spicer life series .
Click to expand...

And inspect that the grease holes in the end of the cross are centered....even the quality of the spicer stuff sometimes isn't what it should be.
 
If you want greasable, there are a few of the spicer life joints that are greasable. They look just like the standard life series sealed joint except they have a grease fitting. I am using them in my 60 (spl55-4x)
 
I don't know where to get Spicer nearby, so I order them online. I'm just wondering how these compare to things like Brute Force or NAPA Proformer. They are made in the USA.

I'm not opposed to either style, but I've lost many joints to dry bearings and none to shattering the cross. (Not that I'm always going to grease things just because there's a zerk...) Anybody here keep breaking greasable Spicers, then switch to non-greasable and stop breaking them? Just seems like the strength advantage is more theoretical. We all know that thick-walled tubing approaches the strength of solid.
 
I was going to change the u joints in my '87 years ago. got the shaft out, popped the joint out and surprise! the grease was clean like new and the needle rollers all looked good. Truck had over 100k miles at the time. I just put the old one back together and ran it 'till ex #2 wrecked it. Truck had over 220 k miles by then.

lesson learned: if it aint broke leave it alone.
 
I cant recall seeing many u-joints break--usually they run until one cap loses all the grease and needle bearings,then they come apart--or the yoke breaks under a shock load..

I have never had one break,and I did a lot of hole shots and tire smoke shows in my GTO--being a TH400 may have been why,I suppose with a manual tranny popping the clutch at high rpms could snap one..

The one U-joint I fear busting the most,is an axle joint on the front of my plow truck--or any of the other GM 4x4's I owned--those suck to replace...I baby the truck when I plow to avoid having to replace an axle joint..last one I replaced in my '82 GMC was due to the cups losing all the needles,and the axle yoke was real thin,I was wondering if I'd break it just putting in the new joint--I really tried to take it easy plowing ever since then..(and of course that winter we get 8 feet of snow,2-3 feet at a time!)..
 
I've been using them for about 3 years. They only make it about a year before the bearings are shot no matter how much I lube them. I keep using them because they were so cheap. Spicers are going in next year, I'm tired of replacing them.
 
I've seen u joints break


Never seen a Spicer break. Not that they won't. But I exclusively use Spicers. Napa use to carry them. Otherwise online
 
Broken a few of the cheap joints. Oddly enough they were all a conversion joint.
 
I've broke joints as well, although not sure what brand. Unfortunately both times the joint took out the ears on the stub shaft (203/10bolt) and the other the joint took out the yoke on the transfer case.
 
I've been using the solid No graspable ones for years. I always check for play and replace when I start getting Some slop on the joint. They usually last 2-4 years on driveshafts. I put spicers on the front axle joints though to hopefully last longer since it's a pain to pull the outer hubs to replace.
 
I've broken a few joints.


Most of the time it's due to exceeding the operation angle of the joint so I can't really complain too much about it.
 
My paranoia keeps me using a middle of the road joint in my driveshafts.its cheaper/and faster to change those than any other potential weak link in the drive train.i was pretty good at it a few years back.lol i had a bad slip joint in the rear. I could do a swap on the side of the road i 10 minutes.
 
Before I had a garage to work in--I babied several of my 4x4's thru some bad winters,that had front axle joints so bad ,there was just caps and crosses left,not one needle bearing..prayed they wouldn't fail till warmer weather arrived..
I replaced them in the spring just before the journals wore through the caps and started chowing the axle yokes !..

I was more than paranoid I'd hear a "BANG" when I was pushing a full blade of snow around a corner..:yikes:..I was lucky,never had one fail..
 
BANG!! I remember being in my younger brothers 86 bronco, while on the freeway.i could feel the vibration getting worse. Chris (being 16) told me it was just the tires.
Then Bang...years or dirt came out of the carpet and the center councel hit me in the arm.:haha::haha:yep,just the tires. What are we gonna do now?he asks. I said pull the shaft,lock in the hubs and drive home.we were only a few miles from home, thankfully
 
I just put Moogs in the D60 (axle joints) - they were HD greasable units @ $60 each - kinda wished I would have ordered Spicers after reading this... :tongue1:
 
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