Camaro u joint caps/clips

[Pranav]

On my rear end, I had a clip walk off causing a u-joint cap to pop out on me during R2 (ran fine on dyno, practice, and qual prior). I made a boneheaded move when replacing the caps that night and caused some more damage, but that's on me (didn't know how the clips work, now I do).

What I'm curious about is if there is a better style of clip used to retain a 1.125" U joint cap than the dinky, soft 3/4 copper clips that they come with:

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...7127&ppt=C0362

It was way too easy for me to push them on and way to easy to deform them into being loose, and that is all that keeps a u joint cap in place.

I'm thinking a steel snap ring that requires snap ring pliers, maybe backed up with a little safety wire, something like this:
http://www.toolsource.com/prod_medium/71041.jpg

I can get a snap ring from a HW supplier, but looking to see if there is a solution dedicated/tested to U-joint purposes out there, or a particular brand of U joint that comes with as such?

Also wondering if there is a different style of U joint strap out there that mechanically retains the U joint cap on the outside so I'm not just relying off the clips on the inside. This is what I run on the car now (bought new ones this weekend):

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...=u+joint+strap

The straps don't really bother me, just the super soft clips...

[marshall_mosty]

Pranav,
I'm never heard of the clips themselves failing.

However, if you really want belt and suspenders, you would have room to drill thru oposing walls on both the driveshaft and yolk side and then run some safety wire thru the holes. That would retain the cap.

[AI#97]

Smiley's has billet aluminum caps and maybe even steel. Beefy for 600+hp. If you break those, you are cursed dude.

[dtanker65]

Maybe some silicone? I agree with Marshall about the clips being reliable, they are copper clad steel. If the u-joint is hard to get assembled, it is often because one of the needles has fallen over in the cap (ask me how I know). I don't like using the hydraulic press to assemble them, there is way too much force and no feed back, it works but the c-clamp style tool gives better feel. O Reillys or Autozone loans the right tool. If the u-joint doesn't feel right after assembly, tear it down and do it again. I forgot to ask if you are using factory manuals? I bought the factory shop manual and electrical manual for my car off of ebay. Best money I ever spent.

[Pranav]

Ordered another used driveshaft, swapped the U joints and installed it along with a fresh torque arm (thanks Glenn for loaning me yours). Found a 1.125" full circle retaining clip and installed it on those two rear caps that are strapped to the yoke, the other 6 got the regular half-circle clips as they are pressed in anyways.

[Pranav]

Couldnt find a track day, so I tagged along with Jander and a friend to the dyno and glad I did.

Above 70mph (3500rpms in 4th) the operator said he could feel vibration.

Not too confident in the u joint swap I did on this new shaft so I will take it to a shop here that does aluminum driveshaft balancing and see what they find.

Really hoping I didn't bend the output shaft in the trans...

[Pranav]

Got a runout gauge and did some measurements. As I strongly suspected, the one part of the u joint installation in which I had the least amount of confidence appears to be the main culprit. When pressing the u-joint caps into the front slip yoke of the drive shaft a couple weeks ago, I barely had room to get the clips in and was not very confident about it; looking at them now I can visibly see one side's cap stick out a tiny bit further than the other, measured difference being just under 0.020" out. There is an issue, either the yoke is bent or I need to try again on the u joint.

Second to that I did the same measurements on the u joint caps where they are strapped to the yoke on the rear end; 0.01ish out. The full circle snap rings I put on were each about 0.01" thinner than the half clips that came with the u joint, (the ones I was so worried about losing again). I wouldn't doubt that the thinner clips would contribute to the rear runout, although unsure how much of it is the front yoke runout "pushing" the entire assembly up away from the guage indicator, as the low/high caps match front to rear.

Finally I took the gauge and put it on the slip yoke seal surface where it goes into the trans to see if I'm getting runout in the trans output shaft (not the most accurate way to check, but only way without blowing apart the trans). Roughly 0.004-5 runout, somewhat but not fully coincides with the u joint cap low/highs at both ends of the driveshaft. I'll retest with the driveshaft out and a spare/loose yoke slipped in, as I need the shaft in car to be able to move it tomorrow...

With the glaring issues with u joint caps, I will have Houston Driveline redo/recheck them and get the driveshaft balanced. This was the "smoking gun" for me to just go ahead and get this done to rule things out, as the driveshaft originally came with plastic-injected joints:
http://www.federalmogulmp.com/en-US/...eplacement.pdf

If there is any vibration left after getting the driveshaft/joints sorted out, I will deal with the t56 tailshaft bushing and potential bent output shaft ordeal after TWS.

[Al Fernandez]

I have a spare driveshaft if you need it. Just in case you dont get this one sorted out. Its steel, but it'll work.

[Pranav]

Thanks Al! I may ask you to throw it in the trailer for TWS.

Should definitely know what I have on Monday, if it's bad I may come by right away to pick it up.

I think I still have the original steel on hand, not sure...

[marshall_mosty]

Pranav,
Your snap rings aren't even there anymore... This is about 5 minutes of track time before you jettison the caps again. You need to pull the driveshaft back out and press the caps back on. Push them over further to one side, get that clip seated, and then turn it over and tap everything back the other direction to seat the other clip. A few swift smacks with a 2lb deadblow should set the final clip.

We wouldn't want the caps to come lose on the front straight and fly into the crowd and kill any babies, especially TWS...
(lets see who gets that "old" joke)...