UJ's, sorry longish post

[Snooky]

Went out and got some new UJ's ready to replace all but one that was done not too long ago.
Went to a mates house to fit, more tools etc, and a bench vice, one of the things you really do need...
Proceeded to remove the old one from the rear propshaft, not real problems, although to be honest we should have agreed to leave as it seemed OK, but I just wanted new to be sure....
Anyway, proceeded to fit the new ones, compressed the bearing housing with the vice then added the "old socket" to run it home, and needed to add an extentsion to the vice to home the thing in, big pop/bang and it was home, but took with it some of the casting, nice sharp finger slicing kind  :? , then did other side same effect, and the UJ was not as free as I'd have thought, with no grease etc.
did the other side of the shaft, exactly the same, big pop/bang and in with the addition of more metal slivers, but hardly any movement on the UJ, not at all happy, but fitted and tested, loads of vibration, took it off to find both bearing housings on one axis cracked, which they were not when first fitted.  

So, what do you think, cheap dodgy UJ's or something we done wrong, even though it was text book fitting as per manual, and the same as we have done before, and we are not stupid when it comes to engineering.
Even took 2 of the old bearing housings and fitted with easy compared to these ones.
So we recon the housing is too big for the casting on the shaft and in fitting it compresses the bearings onto the UJ too tight, could see where they had been seatedfrom the scratch marls on the machined face.
Will be off to the local dealer tomorrow to get some I know will fit fine.

Anyone else had this problem?
Where do you buy your UJ's from?

[TDi90]

well where did you get your UJ's from.
speak to paul at challenger 4x4 just up the road from you, and have a chat with him about it, im sure he can sort you out with some, and explain what went wrong/tell you how to do it.

Rob

[Snooky]

They came from a so called Land rover expert with years of experience, even fitted my last one after I asked about a rumbling noise, although he fitted different ones to the ones he sold me  :o

Challenger isn't that close to where I work, but the Dealer in Basingstoke will be tomorrow, guess there won't be much difference in price for ones I know will last  :?

[rollazuki]

You guys got the correct size UJ spider?

Theres a slightly longer version that can cause all kinds of problem if you try to install it in the smaller size propshaft.

Cant remember the size(Im sure the anoraks will arrive in a bit with the dimensions) but its a gnats hair off , and WONT go in.

[Snooky]

These were the right length, I know the ones you mean, another supplier did send my mate the wrong ones and we tried to fit them, only when we got the vernier out did we find the reason they wouldn't fit.
These seemed to be too thick on the bearing housing if that makes sense?

The loud pop as it dropped through normally happened with a puff of smoke as it stripped a sliver from the housing... :shock:

[lenrover]

Is it possible that you may of bent the yoke slightly when pressing out the old uj? this would mean that you would not be able to push the new one in true and square ? Just a thought :?

[Snooky]

NO we tried it with the old UJ and fitted a treat, but just did that to prove a point didn't like the idea of fitting it to use seeing as it was hammered out  
It was more the fact that on every side we stripped the casting slightly, wouldn't have thought it would have bent all yorks

[extreme90]

have you removed the uj to see whats failed ?
afink a couple of the needle rollers have moved out of position and crushed inside the cup under the pressure of the vice, which would make the uj real stiff and notchy
i wont fit u/j's using a vice or press for this reason cos by just cleaning the yoke and tapping them home with a hammer you will soon no if the rollers are out of place
as for size, its not the diameter that changes its the lenght youve got a small cup and a large, and natrually mine has 2 different types to confuse things and every time i forget  :roll:
hope this helps
dan

[Snooky]

Checked all that, when you remove the UJ it shows signs where the rollers have scored the face slightly, nothing like that on the old one that came off, and all the cups seemed to be the same size.
Taping these ones with a hammer would not have worked, smacking very hard would have probably moved them, but as mentioned we had to work very hard to get these home, should not be that hard surely?

On previous ones you can push them most of the way then a little help with the vice to home them was all that was needed, this needed an extention to the vice handle... :?

[extreme90]

now it is possable if you grip the yoke in the vice to cruch the hole slightly  :oops:
was a experiment i said  :lol:
anyhows nuff of that, it might be that the tollerence of the uj cup against the yoke wasnt any  :lol:  so you crushed the cup in which would effectivly make them a RPITA to fit and would cause it to be very tight aswel
did u clean the hole out in the yoke thourghly ?
dan

[Snooky]

Yep, cleaned up nicely, even the recess for the clip was clean
I am just thinking now it was a crap set of UJ's, I had 3 and all were the same regardless of which hole they were fitted to. Even fell apart when trying to remove them so wonder how long they would have lasted under load when off road etc...
So in future won't be using the same place to purchase and for important things like this will use a dealer, pretty sure the ones in there had been for a while and were LR ones, so best stick with them I guess.

[Snooky]

After leaving my mates last night he still wasn't happy so he took out the venier and measured the old bearing caps againsty the new and there was a difference, enough to cause the issues we were having, so in short we were sold dodgy stuff, but believe that going back to the supplier won't solve anything and won't get our money back, they will blame it on something else, us for example, even tho it's not the qst or the last ones we will ever do.
Looks like a trip to the dealer is in order today then  

[TDi90]

snooky, where did you get the UJ's from?

R

[extreme90]

i wont use anything other than gkn/hardy spicer
if they aint got any i go somewhere is its simple  :lol:
dan

[Snooky]

TD90, won't name as such, lets just say they are in Eversley.
Will use other places for kit from now on, Challenger being one that may get some business, all depending what I need and how quickly.  

[muddysteve]

TD90, won't name as such, lets just say they are in Eversley.
Will use other places for kit from now on, Challenger being one that may get some business, all depending what I need and how quickly.  

they'll be "allmakes" ujs then, i've found they vary in quality quite a bit, the place in eversley do do gkn ujs to you just need to ask

[Snooky]

Got me a nice one from the dealers today, I have heard good and bad things about "that" place and needless to say this is probably the 1st time I've been sold duds, but others have in the past, so you learn.
I may use him for certain things, mainly 2nd hand spares, but new will probably avoid now.

[Mr Bump]

I bought some heavy duty UJ's from Safari Engineering and found them solid enough

[Range Rover Blues]

they'll be "allmakes" ujs then,

One size fits nothing?

[muddysteve]

they'll be "allmakes" ujs then,

One size fits nothing?

they can be a bit iffy

i've fitted a few and sometimes they fall in but others have been a nightmare

[Snooky]

New one fitted, hardly any pressure on the vice, mostly done using a copper hammer, no poppoing and stripping of metal. Although due to the fact we went to the pub to meet some others it didn't get fitted till last night.

Nice and smooth now

Lesson learnt, the hard way