Scott's 1967 GMC 1500 pickup

[Deaf Bob]

Weren't these shared phone lines with other households to reduce phone bill cost?

Yep, I used to wear a hearing aid the size of a pack of ciggys and would try to call a kid up the street.. If anybody answered, somebody was home.. But woe be whomever was already on the line when I dialed..

[Huskinhano]

Back in the 70's when I worked at the Chevy dealer, the u joints had plastic injected to hold them in the driveshaft. The mechanics would beat the living crap out of them. I never had problems changing u joints but then again I never did one held in place by plastic either. The replacement joints has clips from GM.

[tardis454]

Back in the 70's when I worked at the Chevy dealer, the u joints had plastic injected to hold them in the driveshaft. The mechanics would beat the living crap out of them. I never had problems changing u joints but then again I never did one held in place by plastic either. The replacement joints has clips from GM.

I've done plenty of those. I heat the u-joint up with a torch and melt the plastic out.
The caps looked like those magic snakes fireworks when you were done.

[68scott385]

I've done plenty of those. I heat the u-joint up with a torch and melt the plastic out.
The caps looked like those magic snakes fireworks when you were done.

Funny how doing it the right way makes it so much easier to do.

[malc]

One of the caps I was heating went bang and the cap removed itself....

[DanStokes]

One of the caps I was heating went bang and the cap removed itself....

Handy!!

Dan

[Scott Liggett]

Thankfully, this old truck doesn't have plastic caps. It has the old clips.

[Scott Liggett]

So, after spending a couple of evenings replacing the u-joints in my driveshafts I went to install them. The front section went in perfect. the back section just would not go onto the splined rear of the front driveshaft. It is like it was too big. I fought with it for hours. Pulled the front half out and tried getting to go together on the bench. Nothing. Things got hit with my big hammer. I pulled both halves of this driveshaft from the same truck. I measured the old driveshaft splined shaft diameter and they are close by .002 to .005". But, no go. The splined yoke from old driveshaft doesn't fit. Both yokes fit the old splined end perfectly too.

So, this entire weekend I went backwards. I may just have the old front half shortened with a TH350 yoke and u-joint set up put on. Looking at options now. But, my scrap metal pile is getting bigger.

[DanStokes]

Are you sure that there isn't a blind spline? Some of the old Buick shafts had one "missing" spline so they'd only go together one way - this assures that everything is indexed correctly. Worth a look.

Dan

[Scott Liggett]

Are you sure that there isn't a blind spline? Some of the old Buick shafts had one "missing" spline so they'd only go together one way - this assures that everything is indexed correctly. Worth a look.

Dan

Yes. Absolutely. No missing spline on either driveshaft or either splined yoke.

[Deaf Bob]

If it mated before, therefore it must again..

[yellomalibu]

If it mated before, therefore it must again..

Not after the big hammer came to the party.

...but man, I feel your pain. I hope the next attempt goes smoothly. I hate it when something that should be simple hangs me up! Sometimes it works if I walk away and come back later.

[Shelty]

this may be a dumb question, but are new yokes the same spline? its weird that they wont fit together. but Ive never dealt with 2 piece driveshafts.... my mustang has one, but ive not messed with it. and if I do, a single piece shaft will go in....

[Deaf Bob]

Did you tighten the collar?
Where the splines are on the female side...

[Shelty]

did you try heating the female end up with a torch to expand it? maybe see if you can soak the male end in ice to shrink it? It could loosen the tolerance up just enough to slide in.