Heat to Remove U Joints / Ball Joints

The U joints on the axle shafts of my dana 30 are really stuck in there. It almost looks like the U joint caps have been fused to the axle shafts over the last 35 years. would there be any problem using my torches to heat the shafts to remove the U joints? I know using heat to remove bearings from axle shafts is advised against, but what about to remove the U joints? and there's also a darn good chance the ball joints on the knuckles are gonna be a huge pain too. what about using heat on them?

 

I used a hydraulic press for the ball joints and a vice and hammer for the u-joints. If you have access to ether it will make your job a lot easier. If you don't lynn's idea of taking it to a machine shop sounds good.

 

I've removed nasty rusty Chicagoland u joints a bunch of ways. On really stubborn ones, I've often just cut the u joint in half with the torch. If you do it this way, be really careful cause it's easy to destroy a shaft this way.

 

I just went through this also most things I tried didnt work but this sure did.

http://www.4x4wire.com/tech/axle/ujoint/

Works like a charm.

 

I like to press mine out so as not to bend an ear on my axle. I have one of the ball joint press tools like lynn linked to. Makes it very easy. I am a little leary of getting a torch near my axles. My neighbor cuts his out all the time. So far I don't think he has destroyed one.

 

thanks for the ideas. what i did on the U joints was grind 2 opposing caps down flush with the yokes. then bang away with a hammer and punch. it worked like a charm. the ball joints was a similiar appraoch. grind the bottom end of the ball joint flush with the knuckle and drive them out from the bottom up. this is after soaking it all with penetrating oil for 2 days.

cutting the U joint in half was my next step, but luckily it didn't come to that. i've done U joints on dana 60 axles and driveshafts and ball joints on dana 50's and nothing was more stubborn than this little dana 30....

 

Instead of a punch, I've used a socket a tad smaller in diameter than the bearing cup. I recently bought the HF ball joint service tool (wait until it goes on sale for $29.95 or less) but I haven't used it yet. The next time up, though.....

tommy b

 

I have bad experiences with Ujoints. I broke my last two vices on U-joints. First one I broke the base beating it with a hammer and socket. Second one I snapped the part the threaded rod threads into pressing out the U joint with a vise and breaker bar. I also snapped a C-clamp though that was probably a stupid idea to begin with. I used the press for balljoints and ujoints. I swore it was going to snap but it actually worked.