Re: rear u joint

Posted by John Payne On 2013/7/8 1:29:03

G'day Riki,

Today I went an saw a company that specialises in tailshaft repairs, modifications and balancing, as well as repair, replacement and servicing of uni joints. They do other things too, especially for balancing, including race cars.

I asked about replacing the rear flange and they said that it is pretty easy to do. How they do it is they have pre-manufactured blank flanges that suit most common models so that future replacement parts are readily available. This and the flange to be replaced, or preferably the pinion spline itself, are sent out for precision machining so that the new flange has a spline cut exactly to size to ensure the match is correct, otherwise there will be serious wear problems. In other words, the size and shape of splines varies between cars. The "ears" on the tailshaft are cut and replaced if necessary to match the new uni joint. Most likely this would be necessary as the cap size in our senior cars is very unusual which is why we're finding it so difficult to find a replacement uni. He measured the cap size as 1.167" and the closest I can get converting that to imperial measurement is 1 11/64" (1.172"), which does seem a strange size.

He checked my tailshaft over and said it is in pretty good shape and only needing servicing, which they could do quite easily as they have all the equipment necessary to do both ends. They would do the job, use some sort of race car grease which would last for ages and balance the tailshaft for around $100. I decided to go with this as I didn't want to risk damaging the caps trying to remove them (I don't have a press) and they are experts at it so the tailshaft should be set up correctly for me to bolt straight back in next weekend. John