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Here is a source for the tool that I sent a photo of
Princess Auto is a Canadian chain of stores that is similar to Harbor Freight


Princess Auto

Thank you all for the suggestions! I was able to get the joint apart. Took a combo of all of your suggestions.

Pic of the proper tool looked stronger than my C-clamp but I really didn't want to spend money on a tool I hope to never need! I suppose I could have borrowed one from Autozone, but I didn't think of it until just now!

Anyway, I hunted in the garage for a stronger C-clamp. Ended up finding an old vise I didn't realize I had! I positioned the vise under the u-joint and stacked some wood on the stationary side until it was in a good position to hold the large socket. On the movable side, I put my car jack under it for support and put the smaller socket.

Torqued down the vise as far as I could until it started to want to tip off the wood. I used my foot and a little weight to stabilize it. Then I added a 2 foot cheater bar on the vise handle for more torque.

After it was as tight as I could get it, the caps still did not move. I hit the end of the vise with a hammer and the caps moved! Tightened down the vise and hit again. More movement. Rinse and repeat until the cap was fully out of the joint.

Lots of grease in there holding the bearings so that was nice to see.

Flipped the sockets around and pushed the joint the other way until I could remove the other cap.

Now the joint is separated and I hope it will come completely apart when I removed the bolts holding the front joint on the transmission.

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Ingenuity at work!

Necessity is the mother of invention!

Tom

haha, that will do it - luckily I had my rear end out of the car, but mine took a 12 ton press.