Cheap Bastage - Yoke Repair

[Racin'Jacin]

So the Convertible has been making a slight clunk when I put it in gear. The telltale sign of a smoked U-joint.....not! Turns out it is the YOKE is worn allowing ever so slight movement of the u-joint INSIDE of the yoke itself - same on the driveshaft side of things.
So - what's a cheap bastage to do?????

Sure I could go FULL HILBILLY and tack weld the ujoint caps to the yoke. Ahhhh - not for me.

These parts while not impossible to find aren't exactly easy either - so I'd like to figure a nice solid repair to give me lots of time to find a CHEAP set of replacement parts - or better yet repair these permanently.

So my metal shaping experience tells me to try and shrink the metal - either to size - or undersized and machine it back to spec.

This is set up with internal clips so that is a bonus! Simplifies the machining aspect of this IF it comes down to that.

First I need to experiment and see if I can actually shrink the metal.

So I grabbed a junk yoke off the shelf and my trusty Blue Wrench!

I first heated across the yoke cap - I didn't think this would work, but wanted to try it anyway. As I suspected it did NOT work. Nothing to resist the expansion. My small foray into shaping metal tells me that to heat shrink anything you have to have enough COLD (stronger) metal AROUND the hot stuff to resist the expansion - so heating across the strap - it just expands and then contracts back to normal.

Next I heated small sections of the strap - I tried to only go about 1/2 way across. I did this in 3 places and after everything slow cooled I measured a .002"-.003" REDUCTION in diameter! Ureaka!!!! I just might be on to something. I am not sure how "big" my worn parts are, but this is encouraging!!!!

Next I need to determine if I should just put some sacrificial caps in there and try to shrink the metal against them or just go undersize and ream/hone back to spec. The more I think about it - the caps might not be such a good idea. I should probably use a round bar to keep everything in line.

Lots to think about! This just MIGHT work.


To Be Continued!!!!!!!


Racin' Jacin

[Racin'Jacin]

I'm gettin' the feelin' you guys all think I am nuts!!!...



...well that's a distinct possibility, but don't bet against me on this - I just might pull it off!!!







Jacin

[Basement Paul]

I'm surprised it took you so long to figure it out!

Admitting you're nuts is the first step to getting that treatment you need...

Good luck,

-BP

[MostMint]

You are in a dimension of fabrication where the weak dare not tread.