Steering "U" joint

[xirdneh]

Has anyone replaced the steering "U" joint?
How do you get them apart?
Can a new fitting be bought somewhere?
My car is '83 manual steering so the entire joint assy cannot just be removed and swapped out.
The other Tercels I have have the replaceable joint, maybe because they are power steering?

Wish I could post a picture but dial-up will not cut it.
I will try to explain the difference.
Both styles have a mostly enclosed "U" joint at the firewall.
Both have an exposed "U" joint just above the connection point on the steering rack.
The difference is in the short shaft between the two "U" joints.
The shaft is installed in an opposite manner.
The manual style splined end slips into the joint at the firewall and is pinned with a bolt.
The power steering style is permanently attached at the firewall joint.
The manual style joint at the steering rack is permanently attached to the short shaft.
The power steering style at the steering rack is a removabe joint.

I am hoping to swap take a good power steering "U" joint or firewall "U" joint apart and swap parts into my manual.
Just need to know how to take it apart without wrecking it.

[marlinh]

Forum member JustPhil had the same problem as you do. He got a u joint from me for a later year and successfully pressed out the u joint and pressed it into his. The cups are staked in place, so you would have to grind them out and press the cups out carefully. Hard to describe in words. If your car is all one piece, I imagine you would have to remove the whole steering column. It isn't that difficult. I would get hold of another u joint and see if you can successfully press that one out, then tackle yours.

[Petros]

yes, you can replace the u-joints. I have done it.

If you can find the same size u-joint it is easy to drive the bad one out and install a good one. I had a good u-joint of the same size out of an MR2 parts car, it had different size spline shaft, and the rubber coupling was shot (used in the MR2 as part of the break away feature I think). The most difficult part if you do not have just the u-joint is to remove a good one from an existing yoke without damaging it. To removed the good u-joint of another yoke you have to grind on the yoke to allow you to pull out the bearing cups on each end of the u-joint. I put the yoke in a vise and simply drove the u-joint all the way to one side, and grind away the inside of the yoke (i used a die grinder driven by compressed air, it can also be done with a drill and a stone or rotary file) to loosen up the fit of the bearing cup in the yoke. Than I drove the u-joint back towards the side of the yoke with the extra clearance and was able to grasp the cup with some channel locks and continue to twist them out (careful not to dent of damage the good bearing cup). first do one side, than the other. with the cups out you can wiggle the cross part of the joint out of the yoke.

on the side where you are getting ride of the u-joint and keeping the yoke, you can drive the bad joint to one side, and than grasp the cup in a vise and work it out. once you have the old u-joint out of the yoke you can carefully use a round or half round fine file and remove the dented-in parts where they staked the old u-joint in place. I used the die grinder as show below, much faster. than use sand paper to clean up the file marks.

Carefully drive in the new bearing caps into the yoke. I used the vise to compress them into the yoke, but it can also be driven with a soft hammer or mallet. Once all in and assembled, you just take a punch and dimple the edges of the yoke to hold the bearing caps in place.

here is a series of photos I took during the u-joint replacement (I have been meaning to post these for some time now). You can see in the pic with the removed u-joint how bad the bearings are in the joint:

10-19-2012 004.jpg

10-19-2012 005.jpg

10-19-2012 002.jpg

10-19-2012 006.jpg

10-19-2012 009.jpg

10-19-2012 010.jpg

10-19-2012 011.jpg

[marlinh]

I just took this steering column apart and it looks like there are two u joints to choose from. The one protected inside the car would be rust free and in better shape than the outer ones.

[xirdneh]

Thanks, all that info helps a lot.

[xirdneh]

tore into it this morning
getting those caps out without distorting them was a bitch
now to put it back together

[SirNik83]

I just got done with rebuilding my warn out tie-rods only to find that the upper U joint, at the fire wall, has slop in it. All front end "clunks" are gone but this one Any advise on getting to that U joint? I pulled a U joint off a power steering rack at the junk yard, so with any luck I can fallow the procedure above and fix my problem. I'm just not sure how to get at that upper U joint. Do I have to pull the steering column?

I want to drive the car to the eclipse on Monday, would yall dive into changing this now or would it be safe to go 2k miles or so. I think its been bad for a while :/

[NWMO]

I want to drive the car to the eclipse on Monday, would yall dive into changing this now or would it be safe to go 2k miles or so. I think its been bad for a while :/

Nik,

If you have been living with the play, you should be ok. Not ideal, but likely not headed for a catastrophic failure either.

Where are you going to view the eclipse? presumably driving this weekend? I work in St. Joseph, MO and we are working a couple of hours on Monday morning before taking off. Crazy predictions on the number of people possibly coming to view the eclipse and at least one report of a group from China I believe, renting the parking lot and commons area of a local Hardware store (owner to provide bathrooms) for $1,000,000!

Chris

[SirNik83]

I got a hold of my dad last night. He has my first Tercel I wrecked out in his field. He was nice enough to pull the whole steering column for me this evening. Hes coming to my neck of the woods on Friday morning. So I'll have friday after work to see if I can simply swap parts over.

I'm in Sacramento, CA, I've been looking into going to Idaho. All my friends are headed for Oregon. I'm hoping Idaho won't be "As Crazy" as they are predicting in Oregon. I want to take the Tercel because its got my accommodations on the roof

[Mogordo]

I just went through this using the all balls 19-1010.
I didn't use any penetrating oil. Except tried a little WD-40 on the stuck one. Removing the first two caps went pretty smoothly but I had a lot of trouble getting the third out. When I used vise grips on it to pull it out it was more denting and the vise grips would slide off. Maybe good pliers would have been better? I got it to spin but it wasn't moving outward. I tried pushing the joint alone back the other way thinking maybe with less inside the cap it would come out better. I slightly scored the lip when I put a couple rollers in between to push it out so stopped that. I ended up carefully putting a small screw driver against the back of the cap where it wouldn't score the inside of the hole in the yoke and hitting it with a hammer and driving the cap out that way. I filed the scored areas and burrs and ran a socket wrapped in sandpaper through the inside of the holes in the yokes until they seemed smooth enough to me. The new ones went in pretty well. I used a vice to push them in. I got both clips in for one side and it still moved easily but the other side the yoke was thicker on the inner surface and I got one clip in but could feel the movement was a little harder because the caps were further in and someone on another thread had warned if you go too far it will be too stiff to move correctly so I didn't push the other side in far enough for the clip to fit but lightly scored it on the outside instead. I figure with the other clip in that will be fine. If I had filed the inside of the yoke down just a little more I think all four clips would have pretty easily gone in. The bolts for the pinch bolts were bowed and I didn't get replacements yet so I haven't actually driven it yet but I think it's good. On the old joint one of the caps was dry and another close and there was obvious play in it, the rubber was going to pieces and grease was oozing from around it.
You know how sometimes little pieces go flying and you never find them again? I had a good time when one of the clips went flying when I pushed it in a little and then let go and it launched and landed about eight feet away but amidst all the stuff it could have fallen into and never been found again it actually went to one of the few areas that left it in plain sight (:
The pictures are bottom to top. I forgot the one you load last ends up at the top.

[NWMO]

Nice work, I’ve not had to tackle one of these yet.

Chris

[Mogordo]

It really went relatively easily. I did cause myself some trouble later overlooking that pinch bolts are only threaded in one side. Seems like I must have noticed that before and I see the logic. Maybe my brain was slightly fried by then. Fortunately I figured it out before I really messed something up.
I didn't notice much different in the steering but on my car it wasn't binding or sticking it just felt a little loose. I think there is some play maybe in the upper one but I'd guess that one is a little harder to get to.
One thing that I didn't get quite right was the steering wheel being centered. I put it at centered but then maybe the little bit of movement in wiggling the shaft back on turned it because now when the wheels are straight the steering wheel is maybe thirty degrees off center. I don't like it but I don't want to pull it back apart right now.

[dlb]

You can remove the steering wheel easily and put it back on in the position you want. First, make sure the tires are facing straight ahead. Then in the car, there are a variety of different steering wheels but usually there are a few screws on the back side that hold the center or horn button on. Remove those screws and the center/button should come off. Then there is a nut, I think it's 17 mm. Hold the steering wheel still while you undo this nut. Then bang on the steering wheel from it's back side with your hand, on alternating sides. It can take a few hits but should slowly loosen. Once it's loose you can slide it towards you, off the splines. Place it back on the splines in the correct position. It still may not be dead center but hopefully it's better than the 30 degrees off you mentioned.

[Mogordo]

Do you think there will more likely be an issue getting it back on if it isn't the right steering wheel? Or do you think as long as it was made to fit once it will go back on just fine? The steering wheel is from a later model Toyota, late enough to have an airbag, I don't know why it was replaced. I'd like to find one from a 80's Tercel to replace it with and may look into junkyards on the road trip I plan to take in a couple months. It isn't a perfect match for sure but handles the basic function of safely turning the wheels. I had it apart down to the nut yesterday actually trying to determine if the horn could be gotten to work or if the two styles just weren't compatible but I didn't know if getting it off and on was easy and didn't actually remove the steering wheel. I might do that if it's pretty easy. Or just wait and see if I find one I like better and rotate it if not.
Thanks! Cari

[dlb]

If it fits on there now, I imagine it should go back on fine. Can you post a picture of it?