U-joints

[Hook n ladder 1]

Correct me if I'm wrong.  There should be zero free play when i push up on the drive shaft.  I have a little on the first U joint at the transmission, none at the next one off the carrier bearing, a little on the one going into the front tandem and a little on both on the tail shaft.  I haven't changed them in about 10 years so I don't remember if any free play was acceptable.  I didn't think it was.

 

Thanks guys.

[hatcity]

Should be none How often are you greasing them?

i had one that grease was not getting to one section. Thing fell apart when I was taking out

[Hook n ladder 1]

i do local semi-dump so the truck takes a beating...... so every 2500 miles.  

[Nobody454]

when i had my truck doing the same crappy chicago dump truckin, i greased my front end and driveline every 2 weeks minimum, and usually every week...might need to do it more often

[Hook n ladder 1]

Sometimes it works out to about every 3 weeks.  I don't run this truck everyday.  But you know how it is 454.  Sometimes my hips knees and ankles could use some grease.  

[Phase 1]

You might be seeing play in the spline joint. To check for U-joint play turn the shaft.

[Hook n ladder 1]

Nah. I did check that already.   I got them off and they were beat up pretty good. One was frozen even though I greased the $%^& out of it.  

[kt_Engineer]

On 5/31/2020 at 8:50 AM, Hook n ladder 1 said:

Correct me if I'm wrong.  There should be zero free play when i push up on the drive shaft.  I have a little on the first U joint at the transmission, none at the next one off the carrier bearing, a little on the one going into the front tandem and a little on both on the tail shaft.  I haven't changed them in about 10 years so I don't remember if any free play was acceptable.  I didn't think it was.

 

Thanks guys.

I am assuming you are talking about the end play on the transmission output shaft? For manual transmissions with double taper bearing support or ballbearing and roller bearing support (on other end of output shaft/inside the the transmission) the end-play can be about 0.007"-0.008". For mDrive transmission when in neutral it can be as much as 0.040". It feels excessive but under drive the sun-gear in the planetary of range section is loaded and end-play will be much smaller. In unloaded condition there is only one ball-bearing supporting the entire planetary assembly hence the end-play is higher.

The carriers should also have around 0.007"-0.008" as they have double taper bearing system that are pre-loaded.