1. Install the front u-joint yoke with its bearings and its half of the bearing clamp onto the output shaft of the transmission. See photo 97. If you recall, when I first opened the u-joint area, the front yoke was loose. Looking at a spare four speed tranny back in the shed, it looks like a washer is supposed to be installed under the yoke nut, thus spacing it out so that the castle nut will hold the yoke tightly and be in the correct position for the cotter pin. A small mystery solved! See the washer pointed out in photo 98.
2. Re-install the speedometer drive shaft and gear. I put some assembly grease on the gear and some Permetex aviation form-a-gasket on the threads that hold up the left side of the speedo drive shaft. This is to help prevent oil leakage from the u-joint area. See photo 99.
3. Smear some assembly grease on the torque tube front sleeve and slide the u-joint ball housing (with its clamp and gaskets in place) onto the torque tube. See photo 100.
4. The next item to go onto Lurch is the rear u-joint yoke, its bearings, and the back half of the bearing clamp. See photos 101 and 102.
Note that all the bearings go onto their shafts with the beveled hole facing the center of the u-joint. The bevels in the bearing holes give them some clearance at the point where the bearing shaft on the yoke meets the Y of the yoke. If the bearings are not oriented properly, metal will grind and that's not good!
5. I brought the torque tube down so that it aligned with the back of the transmission. Using a small screwdriver, I kept the back half of the u-joint bearing clamp from disappearing into the ball housing. See photo 103.
6. To hold the two halves of the bearing clamp together so that I can get the bolts in, I used some scrap thin wire on two opposite sides of the clamp, thus enabling me to get bolts into the other two bolt holes on the clamp. See photo 104.
7. To start getting bolts into the bearing clamp, I used a slightly longer bolt with a nut on it to start pulling the clamp halves together. See photo 105. Once the halves came close enough to use the regular bolts, I put those in the other two holes and then replaced the longer bolts with the regular bolts and lock washers. I always try to remember to use new lock washers in situations like this. I heard one guy say that there's nothing more useless than used split lock washers. ;-)
Now that all the bolts are started, I tightened one just a little, then rotated the u-joint (tranny in neutral and rear wheels still off the ground) and tightened the next bolt. This way, I could make sure the bearings are positioned correctly as the clamp gets tight around them.
8. With the u-joint clamp bolts tight, I slid the ball housing forward, put some grease on the outside of the ball, and tightened up the housing clamp.
U-joint installation is DONE!
Now all that is left is to hook up the brake rods, re-install the e-brake lever, put in the master electrical cutoff switch, put Mobil 600W oil in the tranny and u-joint, and hook up the speedometer cable. To help prevent oil leaks out of the speedo cable's nut, I put some pipe thread goop on the nut's threads (RectorSeal T plus 2).
The floor boards went in and Lurch is ready for a road test!
