The pain of installing 70 plus year old NOS U-Joints

[MarcDeSoto]

After examining the needle bearings in my U-Joint caps, I realized that I had to remove all of the needle bearings to clean all of the old brown grease out of there.  So that's what I did today.  Hoping to get it all put together again tomorrow.  I have a free U-Joint installer tool from O'Reilly's, so I'm hoping it will go a little smoother this time.  

[keithb7]

Earlier trunnion type? I didn’t find them too bad. There was no way I could press-out the cross shaft. It had very little wear, so I left it. Good thing my boot was in good condition. No way to boot over the seized cross pin. Had to re-use my old boot. The little wear  buttons I circled below were made wrong. Wouldn’t fit. I re-used the old ones.  Aftemarket parts reproduction problems again. All other parts I fit in the trunnions were new. So I probably 75% rebuilt-it.
 

Don’t forget the larger main spring that maintains pressure on the driveshaft. Otherwise you’ll hear clunking and pulsating every time you let off the throttle. That’s when the rear wheels and momentum are pushing the car. Thrust forces on the driveshaft change. It pushes the driveshaft forward. When I bought my Plymouth I experienced this odd sound. When I got into the trunnion later, it was an “aha” moment. Install a new spring voila.  Fixed! 

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by keithb7

[MarcDeSoto]

The ball and trunnion type was only used on Plymouth and Dodge, at least in the 40s and 50s.  Not sure about the 30s.  My u-joints are the cross and yoke type.  I was able to fix the problem though, but I had to use new NOS caps because I ruined mine when I was taking them out.  They must have got cocked in the yolk.  See my "coil' thread for a video of the drive shaft turning smoothly.