1931 Chevrolet |
Universal Joint (Driveshaft U-Joint) |
How-To |
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I was assembling my transmission when I
noticed that my U-Joint was a little "loose". Now, to be clear, when
the plates were bolted together and the assembly was "jiggled", it didn't
seem so bad. But eventually, I disassembled it and tried each trunnion
bearing on each of the four shafts. Individually they all wiggled a
little bit. I tried to find out, "How much wiggle is too much?". I
couldn't readily find a NOS 1931 U-Joint (362739), so I began a hunt for a repair
solution. What I concluded (with some tips from Chipper and other
friends on Chevy Chatter) was that I could use parts from some other years.
But it is still a puzzle to fit the proper pieces together.
Here's the combination that I ended up with:
I purchased a brand new Universal Joint (363717) for a 1932 Chevrolet. Then
when I analyzed the individual pieces, it was apparent that they are
identical, except for the front yoke.
(Click on pictures to enlarge them.)
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1931 (left) - 1932 (right) |
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1931 with worn yoke shafts
and worn trunnion bearings |
1932 with new yokes
and new trunnion bearings |
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1931 - 1932
Front Yokes - Side View |
1931 - 1932
Front yokes - End View |
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The 1931 yoke has a square opening for the transmission shaft, while the
1932 yoke is splined for the new, modern synchronized transmission.
If you keep the old yoke, then you can use the rest of the pieces from
the 1932 assembly in your 1931. |
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LESSON LEARNED: As a test, I put the used trunnion
bearings on the new yoke. They were still sloppy, with
almost the same amount of "wiggle". Then I put the new bearings on the
used yoke. It was readily apparent that the new
bearings were much tighter on the old yoke.
So what I concluded is that the trunnion bearings wear out faster than
the yoke shafts. |
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Having new trunnion bearings on an old shaft is probably acceptable and
solves the majority of the wear issue. So, next time, a simpler
solution would be to just replace the trunnion bearings (351888) with new
ones. And since they fit 1929-1936, they are fairly easy to
find. |
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Universal Assembly:
1930-31 AD, AE 362739
1932-33 363717Front Yoke
1929-31 347661
1932-36 367795
Rear Yoke
1929 347660
1930-33 357493
Trunnion Bearing
1929-36 351888 |
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