mikecorrell

I am absolutely dumbfounded as to why I can’t get this last C-clip to snap onto the u-joint. I’ve never had this problem the handful of times I’ve done it in the past. It looks like the cap needs to be pressed in a few more thousandths, but it will not budge further.

Needle bearings are all in place and I removed excess grease.

I thought pressing them in with the vise would give me the force I needed, and I ended up blowing up a bearing cap. I bought another U joint just to get another cap and I don’t want to destroy this one.

any suggestions? Thanks in advance


Closeup of the c clip

4.3L XJ

Some may disagree with me, but you just need a big hammer. I have noticed that if you need to apply much pressure when pressing the caps in, it bends the ears a little. So put it in a good vise or across something very solid with the clipped side down and smack it good with a hammer. Then finish pressing the unclipped cap in. It will probably be real tight, so turn it 180° over and repeat after you get the clip in and that will loosen it up so it turns freely

Dave51

I use 2 wood splitting wedges, in opposition to each other, to spread the ears apart (they may have been bent in when pounding out the old joint caps).

OldTires

It looks like you painted the axles, and when I did that, the thickness of the paint was enough to make it hard for the clip to go in again. I had to take off that paint on the inside of the ears.

Dave51

You gotta bend that back.

lawsoncl

Yup, looking at the picture you bent the ear inward. I'm betting you put a socket underneath the bottom ear and pressed on upper cap, which bends the upper ear if the upper cup sticks - which of course jams the upper cup even worse.

A better technique is to support the sides of the u-joint, put the socket on the top and press down on that socket. That forces the u-joint cross and cap upwards into the socket without putting pressure on the ears. Then flip it over and press the other cap out.

awg

agree with the others the ear looks visibly "bent in", and needs to be ever so slightly "pushed out"

think I would first try a brass drift and BFH, but other methods could be thought of

I would be inclined to measure gap with a vernier first