Another Yoke Question

[Gary Schulz]

As I started to clean up the driveshaft side of the yokes I found a couple things that puzzled me. Was there a cap on the inside of the spline that covered the end of the driveshaft. I seem to see remnants of some flange that maybe was once part of the attachment for a cap? Torn up remnant shown in the picture below...

20200201_155838.jpg

Is there supposed to be a thin flange that retained a sheet metal end cap?

The other question relates to what looks like damage to the part of the yoke that attaches to the U-joint cross. There is an area where something bad happened and looks to have worn a groove into the yoke. Is this damage acceptable? What would have caused this?

20200201_155904.jpg

[Spider]

There was no cap on there however there is a fairly solid flat washer.

The damage to the yoke would have been from someone driving it with a shagged out Uni-joint. The wear in it (from the next U bolt) does appear deep. You would be best off replacing it, though if need be, you could get away with this, just don't give it a hard time.

[iain1967s]

You can pick up used yokes dirt cheap - try mini mania...
https://www.minimania.com/part/U-22A374

[Fanfaniracing]

This is not the same part...

[Charlynsane]

Hello

I think I have some if you need

[imack]

There should be a cap on there as it's the drive shaft yoke, the output shaft yoke has the nut and washer.

[iain1967s]

You can pick up used yokes dirt cheap - try mini mania...
https://www.minimania.com/part/U-22A374

This is not the same part...

Sorry, yes it’s the driveshaft side... is it 21A1696 ?
Should be fairly easy to come by NOS or eBay

[Gary Schulz]

Yes it is the driveshaft side. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that. For whatever reason, none of mine have those sheetmetal caps on them. I guess I will need to go on a search for some that are correct then...

[Gary Schulz]

I managed to find two NOS (one in original box and the other with just light surface rust) driveshaft side yokes. The one in the original box had its end cap however the other did not, but had its retaining flange in perfect condition. I needed to find a way to replace that cap but this is one of those parts that is tricky to fit since there is no way to just directly drop in a circular piece of sheetmetal given the fact that it needs to get around that reduced diameter retaining flange (look closely below).

20200208_101141.jpg

I made a careful measurement of the inside diameter under that little retaining flange and it looked to be dead on at 1.125". I remember inserting parts like this in other applications so I adapted some scrap materials from the shop and built a simple and crude die set to press the metal into a dome which effectively reduces the outer diameter of the sheetmetal disk. I just stuck the parts in my small arbor press after carefully lining up the dies.

20200208_101132.jpg

Then pressed the sheetmetal part into the die to form the dome (yes, it is just brass in this case)

20200208_101233.jpg

This shrunk the part just enough to get it into place on the yoke

20200208_101342.jpg

After that it was a simple matter to put the yoke assembly back in the arbor press and push the other way to re-expand the disk to fill the space. Once it is painted it should be good to go.

20200208_101410.jpg

[Gary Schulz]

Reached my picture limit. Here is the final product-

20200208_101520.jpg

Sorry if this is obvious and boring but I thought I would share because I have 6 or 7 of these yokes without those caps so maybe I can resurrect more of them now.

[Oneball]

Not boring and not obvious to me. Thanks for sharing it.

[Fanfaniracing]

That looks just pertfect Gary!

[bwaminispeed]

A 1.125 Freeze plug probably would have worked........

[Vegard]

That's great!!! Thumbs up!

[Gary Schulz]

So the saga continues... I cleaned and painted my new drive shaft yokes and was doing an initial fit on the axles. I found initial engagement on the splines pretty tight so I tapped them in place using a rubber mallet. In order to move them back out on the shaft (just to spread the lubricant out and get things moving more smoothly) I again used the rubber mallet in the reverse direction to get the yokes to draw back off the axles. As I was tapping the one yoke back off, I popped the axle out of the CV joint!

I fully pulled the axle out of the CV joint/boot and was able to get the yoke freed up to move more easily on the axle but of course now I have a disaster on my hands (I think). Can the axle be reinserted into the CV joint with the CV joint still in the hub?

I would really hate to tear this whole thing apart just to reassemble this!

20200212_160955.jpg

[Gary Schulz]

Can I just push the drive shaft back into the CV joint while in the car (engine out of course)? It just pushes in so that the small wire clip gets compressed and pops open inside the joint?

[bwaminispeed]

Yep, done it many times.......

On the yoke, try it on all spline positions, you may find one that is more free, should push on easily by hand.......

If it doesn't, it could just as easily pull the axle out of the CV joint when on the road........

[Gary Schulz]

Yep, done it many times.......

On the yoke, try it on all spline positions, you may find one that is more free, should push on easily by hand.......

If it doesn't, it could just as easily pull the axle out of the CV joint when on the road........

Thanks for confirming. It was actually just easier to pop out both axles and slide the new yokes on and off repeatedly until they were nice and smooth. Never realized it was so easy to pull the axles...

Gary

[bwaminispeed]

Yeah, until you WANT to get one off............

Had a few of those....

[Simon776]

Knocking the end caps off the yokes (and Hardy Spicer couplings) was an old rally boy trick. It means you can slide them just that bit further along the driveshaft - and remove the rubber coupling or Hardy Spicer without needing to split a ball joint.