U-Joint Tech Day
February 13, 2005 - Elk Grove Village, Illinois

A dozen CMGC members assembled to R&R the universal joints in the MGB propshaft. Most of them had never seen it done before, so there were lots of hands in the pockets for a while. Disassembly wasn't too difficult, just a little tricky. Remove all of the snap rings and tap the side of the yoke until the bearing caps come out the ends. Unfortunately one of the caps was pushed in until it dropped into the middle of the yoke, after which it was a bit of a challenge to get it back into the bore to drift it to the outside.

Most of the reassembly was going okay, until one snap ring could not be installed. After some careful measurement it was determined that the new U-joint was about 0.004 inch too wide across one axis to allow installation of the last retaining ring. This was apparently a manufacturing error (which should be very rare with these parts). A hand grinder was employed to take a couple thou off each end of the yoke at the tip of the male bearing journal, after which the bearing caps would nest a little farther on, and the assembly width was reduced accordingly. Reassembly was then normal with snap rings fitting and seating properly, and all was right with the world (having consumed about 75 minutes for a 15 minute job).

With this "baptism by fire" experience well in hand, the second u-joint was installed in proper order in about 15 minutes with nothing unusual to write home about. Things may have gone a little quicker, but show and tell is important for these tech sessions, and everyone needs a chance to scratch and sniff. By end of session about ten more club members are qualified to change a u-joint.