I thought it was a good US made one brand new maybe 500 miles ago, but with the new motor and a little extra weight in the car, I went to do a burnout and I took the caps clean off the joint. Its a conversion joint from the later model T10 to the 55 rearend.

I guess its time to put the 9" in.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

billy,

    Check wth Strange Engineering in Illinois. They list several Cap and/or U bolt parts designed for Teenagers like us!

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

I guess a cheap joint could break, but I just can't feature it happening. Cheap joints used to wear out in a hurry, but I don't recall breaking one, and I managed to break almost everything else. Are you sure the shaft isn't too long. If it bottoms out in the transmission, something is going to have to give.

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas

Y-Guy Billy:     If the joint you're using, has a grease zerk, that joint will have channels

            for the grease to travel, which causes a weaker joint, than solid types.

                    With this zerk type, you're suppose to install them under "compression"

            so as to limit what happened to yours. Spicer had a bulletin on  this years ago.

                    Most "race" joints don't have zerks for this reason. Deep down,

            I really think your "Y" just overpowered them......

                                                          Bill

                                       

Bill

Pelham,Al

[quote]yehaabill (5/8/2010)

---

Y-Guy Billy: If the joint you're using, has a grease zerk, that joint will have channels



for the grease to travel, which causes a weaker joint, than solid types.



When I purchased a new "U" joint from catalog supplier, it had no zerk fittings. I returned/exchanged it the old style, thinking regular lube application would insure that it never ran dry, and I also thought there must be a limit to the life of the grease in the sealed unit (heat, and contamination if the seal DID fail would likely cause it to deteriorate). Now I find there may be a trade-off in strength? STILL learning something new every day!

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA

On a stock car, the greasable u-joint should be fine. If I'm not mistaken, they came stock on many vehicles for years. With higher horsepower, and increased traction, the solid body joints start to look good.



Frank, what kind of u-joint was it that broke, was it last year or the year before, at Columbus?


Lawrenceville, GA

Billy,



I go through about 2 rear u-joints every summer. I purchase the more expensive "heavy duty" one for trucks without the grease passages. The problem with my car is wheel hop. I checked the drive shaft angle and that was fine, but I do notice that until I get the rear wheels really spinning, the back end tends to bounce on me. This takes out my u-joints all the time. I added a set of Lakewood slapper bars and this helps, but if I am really hard on "Old Vicky" I still take out a u-joint. Mine don't usually snap, I just chew up the bearings and get a good vibration in the rear. I have to break down and order a set of Traction Master bars, this should save my u-joints. This could be part of your problem too!

I love the smell of burning rubber in the morning!

My brother warned me I would be breaking them, He grew up with 56's out of high school and said he broke several of them. the reason why is that this style was carried over to 54, 55 & 56 from the flat head, When they upped to the Y block the horsepower was doubled and more from the flathead and this was the weak link in the system, thats why in 57 things were beefed up to 9" status.

The joints prior to 57 have a small shaft diameter for the bearing caps, thats why I had to have a conversion joint to go from the later style 9" joint to the smaller 55, 56 style.

It was a spicer USA joint but it did have the grease channels. I did find in my stock a usable joint by changing caps but still have one on order along with the others that the company has at their other ware house, they will bring them down to the store closer to me just in case. I think I will probably install the 9" soon anyway. I'll have to post some pics of it.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

Ken, i would have to agree with you, i,ve never seen a broken uni joint, in that the actual cross just snaps! the biggest cause of rear uni problems apart from worn out and sloppy, is loose caps, despite lock tabs, they can work slightly loose and then bang. I wouldnt think street tyres  would have enough traction on a hard take off to put that big a load to break the cross, just my thoughts!.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

It was an odd situation, I was going up a fairly good incline while rolling and slowed, a couple people I knew were out there to edge me on so while still rolling uphill I dropped the clutch, I must have had too much grip and when I dropped it she just went pling ga ding ga ding. I also had my brother in the car, not saying he is heavy, about the same as me 185 -195 Lbs.

With the old 272 I used to get wheel hop but with this new motor it spun the tire so easy I wasn't getting any wheel hop. I think it was just an odd situation where the weight was transfering while I was still moving and I didn't bring the slack out of it first, I won't be doing that again, I will make sure I have the slack out, live and learn

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?