Rear half shaft Removal

[Richard Cooper]

I want to replace my half shaft universals, how hard is it to remove them? I have a friend who has a press to install new universals and he said that the original universals have a nylon insert that must be heated to remove, yes/no? We have everything we need to do the job, I was just wondering how much of a job is it to remove them. Thanks.

[Tom Bryant]

I don't know about the nylon thing. I've never seen that in any I've had apart. The biggest concern is the outer flange that bolts to the spindle. You need to cut a piece of thick steel to fit into and support the open side of the flange before trying to press out the joint. If you don't the flange will bend and bind up before the cup will move then it's all trash can fodder.

Also if you are doing any drag racing or have a high horsepower engine use solid u-joints and not the ones with grease zerts and bored passages in them. The solid ones are stronger.

Tom

[Ludigdrums]

It's real easy to remove them...I just did it. You want to remove the whole half shaft as a unit, and then do the U-Joints after it's out of the car. All that takes is 4 little screw bolts on each end of the half shaft. I think it is a 1/4" 12 point socket. You might want to take a wire brush and try and clean the bolt heads so that you can get the socket on there nice and snug.

I don't know about changing the actual U-Joints themselves, as I brought them to a Corvette shop (Corvettes Unlimited, Long Island, NY), and they pressed them in for me and sandblasted and painted the half shafts. They look great!

When you're putting back the half shafts, make sure you don't knock off the end caps, as they have many little bushing/bearing things in them, and they are a pain if they get disturbed. Also, you will want to use the medium (blue) locktite on the bolds when they go back in.

Let me know if you need any more info...I just did a complete Offset Trailing arm install.

Good luck!

- Jeremy