U-joint install tools

[oldsman496]

I use a vise and sockets - but I tap - lightly - with a hammer on the yokes as i am pressing them in or out... they have always tended to go smoothly without any drama, even my rusty crap. I replaced both joints when I had the car down for the rust repair this last year.

I got a screwdriver stuck through my left eye when i was 17, so i wear safety glasses religously... but during the rust repair thrash, i ended up at the emergency room ... twice! no health insurance and no significant other to pull it out for me and it happened both times with glasses ON....! safety glasses over my reading glasses the second time Grinding rust both times... damn. those visits cost me over $1200 a pop... still payin' 'em off...and they used an actual DREMEL tool with a grinding bur to get the steel outa my eye both times. ... stuff happens. wear your safety gear!

[Deaf Bob]

I got a wire bristle from a grinder beside my knee joint that showed up in an x-ray... Don't feel it...

Son was standing on the hood of his car, I was on the ground holding a 3ft section of sharpened torision bar (they are the right size to put all-thread or chain thru) when a piece broke off the edge, hitting me in the upper lip under my 'stache... Felt like a mule kick and reacted accordingly... Both kids could see it, couldnt get it out... Had a magnet off a computer hard drive (very strong) could see and feel my lip move.. E-room visit and 3 stitches... Yes I was wearing glasses! It was the size of an eraser head cut off 1/16 inch..
Now... I don't hold NOTHING!

[Bob Holmes]

Each time something like that happens to me, I get a little better at wearing safety glasses.

I had a wire wheel on an angle grinder send a piece of wire into my cheekbone when I wasn't wearing glasses... now I always wear the glasses when using a wire wheel.

I had a shard of steel sink into my leg when I was splitting wood with the 8 lb maul and a 16 lb sledgehammer... Now I wear safety glasses when I do that.

Hopefully I don't lose an eye before I learn to wear safety glasses for ANY dangerous activities.

Back on topic: I've done U joints both ways, but usually I'm not in the vicinity of a press, so it's the hammer and socket method.

I would suggest buying a suit of chain mail.

[BKBridges]

Just did my Dodge D300s U joints with the Big Hammer method... My 65s got a Ball and trunion U joint though. I couldnt get the thing apart when it started its death rattle (after 300K miles) so I took it to the the guys at Dragmasters in O'Side CA. They had the right tool for those things back in '79 and it was a very cool experience waiting in the shop as they pressed the old pin out and the new one in. I tried it a couple of decades later on my other 65 without the real deal tool and bent the SOB... Now Ive got a driveline vibration and no Dragmasters...

[Hemi Joel]

The spilt shaft problems subjugate the reality of chrome and nickel enhanced iron. If four pistons, two in tandem synchronize at 180-degrees, the god particle becomes known to physics, but the link fragile and flawed. Two joints, fighting angular acceleration and deceleration, per half rotation, a schism to constant velocity perfection. Tubular form, yes, concentric and proper, fighting and bound by angular acceleration. The shaft suffers, twisted and distorted prey it is of angular acceleration.
-B3M - - er -dulcich

That's hilarious! Pewee should set that to music and record it.

[Beagle]

I just wait for the floorboard holes and order a new one with yokes already attached. Big hammer indeed!

[sedandelivery55]

BFH and an old 5/8 spark plug socket. works every time.