I'm replacing the 50-year old, 2-piece driveshaft with a custom, one-piece driveshaft. The car is a '72 442 convertible with the corporate 10-bolt differential. The u-joints in the new drive shaft won't fit into the pinion yoke; the snap rings on the u-joints are too wide to fit into the pinion yoke. The u-joints on the old driveshaft don't have these snap rings so there is no interference. Can I remove the snap rings from the new u-joints?

Thanks in advance for the experienced advice. Here's some pics

Rodney


New u-joint is 2.64 inches measured from the outside edges of the snap rings.



The pinion yoke is only 2.56 measured from the inside edges of the pinion yoke.

 

The snap rings keep the bearing cups from walking out of the yoke, so yeah, you need them. Are you sure the cups are fully seated on the u-joint? If a roller falls out of place, it will prevent the cups from fully seating. And where did you get the new driveshaft? The fact that the other side of that u-joint uses external snap rings tells me that this driveshaft is not correct for your car. The correct u-joint is a Moog 234, which is 2.557 from snap ring to snap ring and uses internal snap rings on both sides. What is the diameter of the caps on the new u-joint? They should be 1.125 diameter.

 

Joe:
Thanks for the quick response. The caps are the correct diameter (I measured 1.127" with a cheap caliper from Harbor Freight) but the snap rings are approx 1/16" wider than the pinion yoke. The rear u-joint is supposed to be a hybrid 1330 on the driveshaft side and a GM 3RL on the pinion side. I'll look for a casting number on the u-joint to see if I can identify the maker. I've also emailed Denny's Driveshafts, where I purchased but they will be a away until Monday.

 

Using your dimensions and looking on dennys site , to me it looks like they put a 1330 to dodge 7290 u-joint in the drive shaft.
checked the u-joint on my new Action machine drive shaft and the 1330 to 3r is a spicer with spr 539 cast in the center .

 

What's the side view of your rear end yoke? Need to know if that yoke is an inside snap ring (most likely a GM 3R) or a external retainer like a 1310/1330/1350. Stock on Olds was an inside retainer.

Looks like nick hit it on the head: someone at Denny's grabbed the wrong conversion u-joint. Because all inside lock u-joints are the same, right? Denny's owes you a new u-joint and you get to spend some time with a hammer.

Driveshaft Specialist of Texas is in San Antonio and great to work with (for future reference).

 

Thanks for the info, Nick. The new driveshaft has a rear u-joint with SPR539 cast into the center "x". According to Nick, this should be the correct Spicer 1330-3R u-joint but my internet research shows that Spicer 512 for a greaseable, and 793 for a non-greaseable u-joint is the correct part number.

Rodney

 

Rodney the spicer part number for the conversion u-joint that's on my new drive shaft is 5-793x. fits great no issues.