It should have been easier
Assembling the rear driveshafts with the universal joints is an easy job (unlike the disassembly of them). Especially using my press, getting in the Universal Joints is very easy to do and the first was completed in no time.
The second however, disaster! The first joint went in smoothly but when I pressed in the second the complete “top lid” of one of the caps broke off!!! Aargh. No idea how this happened. I did not subject the joints to excessive force, although using a press sort of hides these forces.
So, after a minute or two of swearing I pressed out the one joint which, thankfully, did not damage the shaft and came out pretty easily. It should just be a matter of purchasing a new UJ now and pressing that in. All in all, the job took me 4 hours where it should have been like 10 minutes.
Hi Marcel,
The UJ caps are not as tight a fit as you might think – if you no not press exactly concentric then they can easilly jam. It is easy enough to tap them in with a bearing drift and a hammer. Also you don’t want to drive them too far as this will make the UJ stiff. When you have got them all in and fitted the clips you will need to knock the caps back against the clips to free up the UJ. There is some info on how to do this in the Haynes Manual – if you havn’t got a manual I can scan the page for you.
Cheers,
Simon.
Perhaps mine are more tight due to the galvanising? They are not that tight, but the press helps to put them in straight and more easy than hammering away. I actually have a haynes manual, did i overlook the page you mention?
[...] for a replacement Universal Joint for the one rear axle, I have discovered that they have their own parallel [...]