quote:
Originally posted by jack deryke:
Hell indeed. I've seen maybe a dozen very expensive ZF cases cracked like a walnut from a loose halfshaft flailing around, and a few more with the whole inner fender panel destroyed. This last is also bad 'cause theres a brake line 2" away that also gets ripped apart..... Check your u-joints for incipent failure by carefully looking at all the bearing caps. If theres a shiny polished ring showing under the snap-ring, that means the cap is moving in the yoke. And movement only happens when the u-joint needle bearings are beginning to fail. This's one reason why I don't like grease shields or those pretty li'l DeTomaso logo-thingys that get glued in above the u-joint caps. Makes such inspections difficult-to-impossible.
Jack, I remember years ago when you posted issues about the importance of checking the 1/2 shafts. I have been doing a visual inspection of the u-jount caps with the snap ring "in place" (because you can see a small portion of the cap where the snap ring does not totally meet). Is that the usual practice for inspection, or is the actual snap ring removed to view the cap? I usually also rock the car with car in gear and look to see if there is any movement of the u-joint cap area.
When I had my one 1/2 shaft rebuilt about a year ago, the caps looked ok on visual inspection (no shiny area near the snap ring space), but when I grabed a hold of the shaft and shook it, the damn thing moved about 1/4 to 1/2 inch, and grease came out of the "inside" of the u-joint cap area, and so it wasn't holding grease too well. So I had it rebuilt right away.