I'm on the final stretch of getting my AV8 on the road. I went to put the u joint on the transmission shaft, so that I can put the engine/transmission back in the car and I have hit a snag. Please see the pictures below. One of them is obviously different. One of them goes on the transmission shaft with ease. Guess which one? You guessed it - the one that is different than the others. In my feeble mind, I am thinking just run that one. But, you can see that the snout is longer than the others. Thus, it bottoms out on the rear bearing of the transmission. I even pulled one of the other ones off of a side loader. It doesn't want to go on my transmission shaft either. Suggestions??? I can't really see any burrs on the shaft that would keep the others from going on there.
That one is not longer, just the middle of it is puny! Ford used the same u-joint 1928-1948 on cars an thru 1941 on 1/2 ton pickups. Personally, I wouldn't use the skinny one unless it was to just get me home. Dave
The joint is supposed to bottom against the bearing with the special convex washer and bolt holding everything tight together.
Ok, but…. When it bottoms out, there is still about an 1/8” left. So if I were to tighten the bolt, it would try to push the bearing further into the case.
Unless you have something unusual; the center of of the bearing is tight against main shaft while the snap ring on the outside of the bearing bears against the case. In other words if everything is in the right place tightening the joint bolt should not move anything other than pull the main shaft back against the bearing if it wasn't completely seated.
I do see a burr or two on the sides of a spline. Maybe the joints that don't fit are the only ones with a high tolerance. The one that does fit is loose on the splines.
I guess my eyes are getting bad!! There were definitely burrs on the transmission shaft. After about 2 hours of gently filing, and on & off with the u-joint, I was able to get it to fit.
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