Drive shaft universal joints
08-13-2016, 05:43 PM
#1
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Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Phoenix Arizona area
Posts: 46
Drive shaft universal joints
I searched in the two Z31 forums under "Technical" etc and "brakes Suspensions" etc, for issues related to Drive shaft issues and did not find any posts. I have looked at the drive shaft on my 84 Z31 NA 2+2 automatic and found that the rear universal joint was bad. After looking in the FSM, they say the drive shaft can not be taken apart and a new or used drive shaft must be purchased. Prices ranged from about $160 (used) to $350 (new). Having replaced universal joints several times on various cars, I refused to believe they could not be replaced. I found a pair of Universal joints on EBAY and purchased them for $65 and free shipping. They will be here early next week.
Ebay lisingt;
Fits Nissan 300ZX Non-Turbo 1984-1989 - Driveshaft U-joint Pair (2 U-joints)
The caps on the universal joints, in the circular supports, are peened over to hold them in place. Therefore giving the impression they can not be removed and a replacement drive shaft must be purchased.
As soon as I receive the universal joints next week, I plan on taking out the old ones and installing the new ones. I will list my efforts, with pictures, back on this post. Thankis, Bob
Ebay lisingt;
Fits Nissan 300ZX Non-Turbo 1984-1989 - Driveshaft U-joint Pair (2 U-joints)
Brand New Premium U-joints (2 U-joints included)
Fits
Nissan 300ZX 1984-1989 (Exc. Twin Turbo)
Nissan 300ZX 1984-1989 (Exc. Twin Turbo)
This U-joint is a direct replacement despite dealer claims u-joints are non-replaceable.
No Modifications, No Welding, and No Special Tools Required
U-joint is supplied with clips, grease fittings, and instructions
No Modifications, No Welding, and No Special Tools Required
U-joint is supplied with clips, grease fittings, and instructions
The caps on the universal joints, in the circular supports, are peened over to hold them in place. Therefore giving the impression they can not be removed and a replacement drive shaft must be purchased.
As soon as I receive the universal joints next week, I plan on taking out the old ones and installing the new ones. I will list my efforts, with pictures, back on this post. Thankis, Bob
08-14-2016, 08:46 PM
#3
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Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: east KS
Posts: 300
yes good luck
i think it was impossible to find the exact size U joint back then metric you know
we sent some to a drive line specialty shop on 240sx but the same type
they got the 1st one done good enough, but we tried 3 others and they were terrible so we gave up after that ...and so did the shop
i think it was impossible to find the exact size U joint back then metric you know
we sent some to a drive line specialty shop on 240sx but the same type
they got the 1st one done good enough, but we tried 3 others and they were terrible so we gave up after that ...and so did the shop
08-22-2016, 07:25 AM
#4
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Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Phoenix Arizona area
Posts: 46
SUCCESSFUL REPAIR OF DRIVE SHAFT - BEARING REMOVAL
After receiving the new bearings, I purchased through Ebay, and looking at the instructions, the section on removing the existing bearings suggested 2 methods to do this. The first was using a hammer with substantial force or a hydraulic press. A search on “staked-in” bearings on a drive shaft, led me to a web site that showed the identical set of instructions which I had received (See picture and web site).
http://rockforddriveline.com/Staked-In_U-Joints.pdf Their bearing number for the 84-89 Nissan 300ZX (except twin turbo) was 430-11A
Since I do not have a hydraulic press (also being a person not wishing to pay someone to do this work) and in the past, was allowed to use the equipment in our machine shop at work, I had never purchased one for my home shop. Now being retired, a 20 ton press has been on my list to purchase. Also using a hammer to drive these out past the metal spurs did not give me a fuzzy feeling (equipment damage or personal injury).
Stepping back and thinking this through, led me to a different approach, which allowed me to remove these successfully and a possible method that anyone could do in their own home shop. (There is always more than one way to do something and this is what I did. You may find that you can improve upon this method. We are all creative and have our own experience to draw from and that is wonderful).
Only a few tools would be required; The first was a sturdy metal bench vice with a minimum of a 4” jaw opening, 2nd was a 4 ½” angle grinder with a 4½ “ metal cut off blade, 3rd was a Dremel rotary tool with a 1” cutoff blade and the 4th would be miscellaneous hand tools (See pictures). Even if you do not presently have these tools and you had the desire and some inert skills, to do this work, you could purchase these tools with the money you saved by doing this work yourself and then have them for future projects.
Safety is of the UTMOST importance when doing this work. The proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) must be worn to protect your self from any injuries. This method yields sparks and molten metal while grinding, not to mention any other flying pieces that could come in your direction. I wore the following PPE while I was doing this work; Safety glasses, Googles over the glasses, Heavy leather gloves, Base ball cap put on backwards, Dustmask, Full ear covering muffs for hearing protection, and heavy clothing to protect your arms and body. Along with this, you need a good dose ofpatience, good hand/eye coordination and willingness to wear the proper PPE, which is required to do this safely and meet with success. If you do NOTmeet the requirement, as stated in the previous sentence, then I would not recommend this method.
I decided that the easiest way, for me, was to cut the universal bearings in 4 places and let it drop out of the yokes, leaving only the bearing caps (with needle bearings and stub shafts) in place. The stub shafts and needle bearings were then easily removed from the backside. At this point the bearing caps could be driven downward, without having to go past the metal spurs, with lighter blows from a ball peen hammer and drift. After removing the caps the metal spurs were now easily accessible and could be ground down to allow the new caps to be pressed into place.
I will show the installation in the next post. Thanks, Bob
After receiving the new bearings, I purchased through Ebay, and looking at the instructions, the section on removing the existing bearings suggested 2 methods to do this. The first was using a hammer with substantial force or a hydraulic press. A search on “staked-in” bearings on a drive shaft, led me to a web site that showed the identical set of instructions which I had received (See picture and web site).
http://rockforddriveline.com/Staked-In_U-Joints.pdf Their bearing number for the 84-89 Nissan 300ZX (except twin turbo) was 430-11A
Since I do not have a hydraulic press (also being a person not wishing to pay someone to do this work) and in the past, was allowed to use the equipment in our machine shop at work, I had never purchased one for my home shop. Now being retired, a 20 ton press has been on my list to purchase. Also using a hammer to drive these out past the metal spurs did not give me a fuzzy feeling (equipment damage or personal injury).
Stepping back and thinking this through, led me to a different approach, which allowed me to remove these successfully and a possible method that anyone could do in their own home shop. (There is always more than one way to do something and this is what I did. You may find that you can improve upon this method. We are all creative and have our own experience to draw from and that is wonderful).
Only a few tools would be required; The first was a sturdy metal bench vice with a minimum of a 4” jaw opening, 2nd was a 4 ½” angle grinder with a 4½ “ metal cut off blade, 3rd was a Dremel rotary tool with a 1” cutoff blade and the 4th would be miscellaneous hand tools (See pictures). Even if you do not presently have these tools and you had the desire and some inert skills, to do this work, you could purchase these tools with the money you saved by doing this work yourself and then have them for future projects.
Safety is of the UTMOST importance when doing this work. The proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) must be worn to protect your self from any injuries. This method yields sparks and molten metal while grinding, not to mention any other flying pieces that could come in your direction. I wore the following PPE while I was doing this work; Safety glasses, Googles over the glasses, Heavy leather gloves, Base ball cap put on backwards, Dustmask, Full ear covering muffs for hearing protection, and heavy clothing to protect your arms and body. Along with this, you need a good dose ofpatience, good hand/eye coordination and willingness to wear the proper PPE, which is required to do this safely and meet with success. If you do NOTmeet the requirement, as stated in the previous sentence, then I would not recommend this method.
I decided that the easiest way, for me, was to cut the universal bearings in 4 places and let it drop out of the yokes, leaving only the bearing caps (with needle bearings and stub shafts) in place. The stub shafts and needle bearings were then easily removed from the backside. At this point the bearing caps could be driven downward, without having to go past the metal spurs, with lighter blows from a ball peen hammer and drift. After removing the caps the metal spurs were now easily accessible and could be ground down to allow the new caps to be pressed into place.
I will show the installation in the next post. Thanks, Bob
08-23-2016, 07:48 PM
#5
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Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Phoenix Arizona area
Posts: 46
The hard part has been completed. The installation also requires patience, so the needle bearings stay in place during reassembly.
It was important before taking the old bearings out to mark each end of the yokes, so they can be put back into the same relationship as the originals were, so you do not affect the balance of the drive shaft and cause excessive vibration. I used a punch to mark them and took one end apart at atime.
As a bearing cap was removed from the universal joint, I placed a little more grease around the needle bearings so they would not fall down from around the inside wall of the bearing cap.
To start with, I placed a rolled up portion of paper towel into the bearing cap. This was done to keep the needle bearings in place, while it was initially tapped into place, until it was just snuggly seated. Then the shaft end of the universal joint was inserted through the open side of the yoke and the other shaft end was slide into the cap containing the needle bearings.
The use of the bench vice works well in pushing in the bearing caps. I used 2 nuts (one on each bearing cap), to push the caps into the yokes. Do this slowly, to ensure the needle bearings stay in place. After the caps were about half way in, I centered the universal joint, so the two bearing shafts were of the same depth within the needle bearings on both sides. At this point you can be pretty certain that all the needle bearings are in their correct location and then I could continue pushing the caps in by turning the vice handle (a small piece of pipe may be needed to put onto the handle to get the proper leverage). You will see that there are grooves on the back side of the caps. These are for placing the spring clips, which hold the caps in place, ensuring they do not back out. A small hammer worked well for me to tap these into place. The same process is followed for the rest of the installation. Make sure when you start on the other end to align the punch marks.
I used a rotary wire brush on an electric drill to clean up the outside of the drive shaft to remove the rust. A wipe down with a rust remover solvent and then wiped down with water and dried, made it ready for paint.
I was very pleased with the outcome and saved myself a lot of money by repairing, versus buying new. Not to mention the sense of accomplishment in doing this successfully. Good luck on your projects. Thanks,Bob
It was important before taking the old bearings out to mark each end of the yokes, so they can be put back into the same relationship as the originals were, so you do not affect the balance of the drive shaft and cause excessive vibration. I used a punch to mark them and took one end apart at atime.
As a bearing cap was removed from the universal joint, I placed a little more grease around the needle bearings so they would not fall down from around the inside wall of the bearing cap.
To start with, I placed a rolled up portion of paper towel into the bearing cap. This was done to keep the needle bearings in place, while it was initially tapped into place, until it was just snuggly seated. Then the shaft end of the universal joint was inserted through the open side of the yoke and the other shaft end was slide into the cap containing the needle bearings.
The use of the bench vice works well in pushing in the bearing caps. I used 2 nuts (one on each bearing cap), to push the caps into the yokes. Do this slowly, to ensure the needle bearings stay in place. After the caps were about half way in, I centered the universal joint, so the two bearing shafts were of the same depth within the needle bearings on both sides. At this point you can be pretty certain that all the needle bearings are in their correct location and then I could continue pushing the caps in by turning the vice handle (a small piece of pipe may be needed to put onto the handle to get the proper leverage). You will see that there are grooves on the back side of the caps. These are for placing the spring clips, which hold the caps in place, ensuring they do not back out. A small hammer worked well for me to tap these into place. The same process is followed for the rest of the installation. Make sure when you start on the other end to align the punch marks.
I used a rotary wire brush on an electric drill to clean up the outside of the drive shaft to remove the rust. A wipe down with a rust remover solvent and then wiped down with water and dried, made it ready for paint.
I was very pleased with the outcome and saved myself a lot of money by repairing, versus buying new. Not to mention the sense of accomplishment in doing this successfully. Good luck on your projects. Thanks,Bob
08-24-2016, 06:19 AM
#7
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Phoenix Arizona area
Posts: 46
Staked-In U-Joints
This is the home page for the Rockford bearing and other equipment site.
These are the dimensions that I mic'd using a Vernier caliper.
The "A" dimensions were;
OLD BEARING CAPS - .948" very consistent across all caps
YOKE BORE - .944 - .945" depending on where in bore it was measured.
NEW BEARING CAPS - .948" very consistent across all caps
This then gave a press fit range of .003" - .004"
Based on my engineering experience, this is acceptable. Manufacturing process is very tight on manufacturing bearings. The bore of the yokes were subjected t to torque loads and stress over its 32 years in service so this is pretty good.
The "B" dimensions were
1.639" - 1.642" again depending on where the measurement was taken
Hope this is what you were looking for. Thanks, Bob
This is the home page for the Rockford bearing and other equipment site.
These are the dimensions that I mic'd using a Vernier caliper.
The "A" dimensions were;
OLD BEARING CAPS - .948" very consistent across all caps
YOKE BORE - .944 - .945" depending on where in bore it was measured.
NEW BEARING CAPS - .948" very consistent across all caps
This then gave a press fit range of .003" - .004"
Based on my engineering experience, this is acceptable. Manufacturing process is very tight on manufacturing bearings. The bore of the yokes were subjected t to torque loads and stress over its 32 years in service so this is pretty good.
The "B" dimensions were
1.639" - 1.642" again depending on where the measurement was taken
Hope this is what you were looking for. Thanks, Bob
08-24-2016, 06:21 AM
#8
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Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Phoenix Arizona area
Posts: 46
09-15-2016, 05:01 PM
#10
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Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Phoenix Arizona area
Posts: 46
Thank you joezmam367,
I hope this helps others who are on a tight budget and have the skills to do this. There is an old saying: "What you can conceive and believe, you can achieve".
Thanks for your kind words. Bob
I hope this helps others who are on a tight budget and have the skills to do this. There is an old saying: "What you can conceive and believe, you can achieve".
Thanks for your kind words. Bob
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