Ujoint small vs. Large Debate.

I'm confused by this part. It seems that everyone agrees there are two sizes of joints.

 

Well here is some more gas for the fire of Jeep engineers. My dad bought my jeep Brand spanking new in July of 1970.

He said he drove it off the lot and noticed a slight metal grinding sound. He got it home and noticed the front drive shaft was hitting the bellhousing and starter. He took it back the next day and they put that center crossmember spacers in.

There is a case of rubbing....and that was on a brand new one....with the smaller driveshaft. Hey, If you guys can come up with a way to run the larger driveshafts without putting lift kits in......i'm all for it....those d*** smaller U-joints are $45 a piece....when you can find them. Every autozone in town carries the bigger ones

 

Oh....and hey...Alex.....I hate to break this to you but, I think its time to take that body off life support. I think It's safe to say there's no hope, LOL

 

searching for the larger u joint # guys, from what i have read in this thread it is the same as the rear joint, is this correct? its time for u joints in the front of my m38a1 and they are the larger ones. and i know aint no body in town gonna know what i am talking about if i go asking for u joints for a m38a1. thanks guys

 

thanx don you da man

 

Does anyone know the part number for the smaller front U-joints or if I can even find them at a local parts store??

 

To add even more fuel to the fire, the two small joint front propeller shafts I had, one from a T-86 and one from a T-14 equipped Early CJ both had the same tube diameter as the large u-joint equipped front shafts I have from Early CJ's. The ONLY difference between the two was on some models were shorter travel and the yokes and joints and length. That is it.

 

If you can measure the distance between the insides of the ears of the yokes I may be able to answer your question. I think they are 5-170x, same as some pto joints, but would have to measure to be sure. Sorry but I sold all my small joint shafts so don't have one to measure.

 

Spicer 5-248X .Purchased them at Six States Distributers

 

I came across this thread today because I was scratching my head and looking for answers…

I ordered a set of ujoints off the internet and they were too large for the front shaft; fit fine in the rear. I went to two different FLAPS and the first place told me they don’t have it and can’t get it. The second place told me they have the ujoint(s) I need but there are two different sized for just the front shaft. They informed me that the ujoint that was against the D27 is a different size than the one against the D18. Does that make sense? I thought for sure they were the same when I pulled them out of the jeep. Unfortunately I don’t have part numbers with me but I ordered them and should have them today.

1969 CJ5
D27, D18, T14, 225 V6

 

On a similar note is their a conversion ujoint to go from the small to the large joint? My flaps is saying that precision does not make on but does spicer?

 

The small u-joint from Precision should be a 361. Couldn't find a conversion joint.

 

I went to NAPA to pick up the joints they had sent in for me and..... guess what, they are too large.

They told me it would be the Precision 497 or the 505 for the front and both are too large.

I got the Precision 369 for the rear and the work well.

So I guess I will try the 361 and see if that works. Any one else have luck with the 361?

UPDATE: I just called NAPA and they said they could not locate a 361 in the system (even though I found it via google) but a 365 should work with 2.07" measured between the grooves. So I guess I will try the 365 next if if that doesn't work I will just order them off the internet.

 

There is no Spicer conversion u-joint. I attempted this with my recent Dana 30 swap. My local drive shaft shop (Dana franchise) even tried to find a standard yoke with the small slip joint splines to no avail. I'm going to change my transfer case yoke so I have all the standard CJ size joints. I have a small suspension lift and clearance is not an issue.
I may have a complete front drive shaft with both transfer case & axle yokes available soon.

 

I am just going to get a later model driveshaft with the larger yokes and have it shortened. That's what I did for my d44 front swap. I was hoping to save some money but I guess I will have to go that route.

 

I don't really know how these prices stack up, but I asked the local shop for quotes on some Spicer pieces after I noticed their thread promoting them. They only stock the common stuff and more popular conversion joints usually needed for axle swaps, but the 5-105X and 5-170X are available.

No idea if it is worthwhile to have stuff shipped from these guys, but it is at least a reference point for price comparison against your local Spicer supplier. (If these guys are high, let me know so I can beat them up.) Thread is here and all their contact info is in Joe's signature:

http://www.greatlakes4x4.com/showthread.php?t=183655

 

Hi there, Was just wondering if anyone knew the yoke width of the D27? I'm working on a front DS for a friends 70 Commando which has a GM 350 and probably a GM auto, i'm not sure. Also not sure of the TCase, never really bothered to look. But he had the 2 piece shaft with 1.25" OD tube. Rather than replace the bearing he thought he had room for a straight shaft. So I told him I'd make him one out of his two piece.

I basically just took the piece that had the slip yoke in it and lengthened it.



Into this



The ujoint on the D27 side had the same width yokes, my other question is did the Tcase side have two different widths or were they the same? The ujoints I got fit the yokes just fine. They're Spicer 5-105X, or 1-0105DL from Autozone, the ones I got from AZ were Neapco to. $8.99ea. Also all the ujoints on his shaft had internal clips.

Hopefully that made sense. I got interrupted a few times

 

Yea I think I got the wrong ones. I think I needed the 5-248X same width and cap dia of the internal snap rings, but the other side has 1.062 dia caps which I believe is what fits the yokes.

 

Just to clarify the front drive shaft on V-6 equipped CJ's and Jeepster Commando's used the same small joint on both ends of the drive shaft.