Well, I've bit the bullet and am replacing the seals/packing on my universal joint ball. This is on a '52 half-ton. I accessed mostly everything from inside the cab by removing the transmission access cover. I have the ball joint disconnected, the tube slid back and I can now see and access the u-joint. That is where I stopped yesterday because I was beat. Next step today will be to place a jack under the tube, remove the four bolts holding the u-joint together, and then slide the yoke assembly back. Before I do that, I have a question: Will the tube move up or sideways enough for me to slide the yoke out along with the ball housing? The last thing I want to do, having come this far, is to bend or otherwise damage the tube. I don't think it can go down enough to give me the clearance I need without removing the frame cross-member. I can probably put enough upward pressure on the tube, with the jack, to get it to clear from the top, but again I don't want to bend the tube. How do y'all do it?
Assuming you have the rear wheels lifted and the frame on jack stands, the torque tube will pivot up as high as the floor board and as low as the ground, quite a bit of movement indeed.... Glad to see you're going to place a jack under the tube, good. Theres some downward torque on it once you disconnect the U joint (or as Chevy called it, the trunion). Be careful bending back the locking tabs on the 4ea U joint bolts as you'll be reusing them on reassembly.
Follow the manual on setting the freeplay on the ball collar. You probably know this but mentioning it all the same.
I removed the rear tranny cross member (5 bolts per side) but I was doing an engine/tranny swap and had to rebuild the rearmount as it has lost all it's cushioning material. I slid the cross member back to support the torque tube during this process. That said, I believe theres enough clearance to do your repair without removing the cross member but you'll need to remove the 4ea bolts that secures the rear tranny mount to the crossmember and slightly lift the rear of the tranny to get enough clearance to move it out of the way of the ball collar.
Assuming you have the rear wheels lifted and the frame on jack stands
Very important! I always raise the torque tube up til it is touching the bottom side of the bed. You then have plenty of room to remove the cross member, if needed.
Craig
My '50 Chevy 3100 5 window, '62-235cu, 3:55 rear My truck ....... Respect The Rust If I'm not working on my truck, '65 m00stang or VW camper, I'm fishing with the wife or smoking Salmon.
Well, I’m glad I asked. I planned to support the driveshaft, but I hadn’t planned on getting the rest end off the ground. I guess that probably would give me more movement on the tube. So, when I start in again, I will raise the frame til weight is off rear end. Then, put a jack under the tube. Then, I will unbolt u-joint and see what I can do.
If you don’t raise the frame and support it with jack stands the torque tube can cause injuries when it breaks loose.
Martin '62 Chevy C-10 Stepside Shortbed (Restomod in progress) '47 Chevy 3100 5 Window (long term project) ‘65 Chevy Biscayne (Emily) ‘39 Dodge Business Coupe (Clarence) “I fought the law and the law won" now I are a retired one! Support those brave men/women who stand the "Thin Blue Line"! Hug a cop! USAF 1965-1969 Weather Observation Tech (I got paid to look at the clouds)
I'm pretty handy with a wrench, but don't have a lift or a lot of the other tools one could benefit from when doing work like this. And, I'm working by myself. I was concerned about the force being on that torque tube, so I'm glad you all told me to support the frame. I had read to do that, but I thought if I placed a jack under the tube I would be okay. I maxed out the height on my floor jack, and the tires were off the floor, but I needed to go a little higher to get my stands under the frame. If I lowered my stands to the next notch, then the tires were back on the ground. But, they were barely on the ground...most of the weight was on the jackstands. I then placed my jack under the tube and put just a touch of pressure on it. Unbolted the u-joint and it slid apart with the slightest bit of nudging. I then raised my jack enough so the tube was high enough to slide everything out from the top. And, there was BARELY enough clearance between the tranny and the floorboard to get that ball housing out.
I have everything soaking now. Thanks for the help. I'm sure I'll be back with questions when I put it all back together.
The reason why you don't want to put jack stands under the rear axle housing when disconnecting the torque tube & tranny connection. Is because the rear axle on 1/2 ton trucks are attached to the leaf springs using a spring seat with a bushing. Picture The spring seat allows the rear axle to rotate on the leaf springs. Its not a solid connection. Putting jack stands under the rear axle, makes the front of the rear axle and the torque tube rotate downward. Putting jack stands under the rear leaf springs would prevent the axle from rotating but is not a stable lifting point.
The purpose of the axle to rear spring seat bushings is to dampen out road noise at its source and in doing so, prevents it from telegraphing through the springs to the frame into the body. Also eliminates any axle to spring binding when the springs compress/decompress. 1948 - 1951 Chevrolet Truck Shop Manual Rear Spring Seat
While you have it open up you should check to see if there is any play in the propeller shaft inside the torque tube. Wiggle it up down side to side.
I just checked and I have the slightest bit of wiggle on the propeller shaft. I know that the majority of my oil leak was at the ball because you could actually watch it drip out of it and there is a huge puddle on my garage floor directly under the tranny. So, I'm thinking I might let it ride for awhile. I checked my rear end lube level awhile back and it was a touch over full, but not much. I've read that pulling that front bushing, to install an Okie bushing can be a nightmare. How true is that?
" I've read that pulling that front bushing, to install an Okie bushing can be a nightmare. How true is that?" There shouldn't be a problem if you use the Bushing Puller
The leak was at the end of the retainer and also the ball housing. It was leaking from both places. I have it all apart and the ball housing looks fine. I was expecting it to be all corroded, pitted, etc., but I polished it a bit and it looks almost like a mirror. I'm not sure these two seals have ever been replaced.
So you don't get confused this picture shows a separate ball seat. That ball seat is only used with the hydra-matic & powerglide trans. The manual trans. ball seat is machined right into the manual trans. tail housing.
Back to the task. What I meant to say does the ball housing fit snugly or slide tight onto the torque tube? Years of down pressure on the ball housing from the torque tube, when putting on the brakes tends to loosen the ball housing on the torque tube. Picture Most of the time the ball housing is ok.
Sounds like your leak problem was a worn out ball collar cork oil seal and a torque tube retainer cap rubber oil seal. Picture Do you have two O-ring washers in the retainer cap?
It is important to adjust the ball housing correctly before installing the ball collar cork oil seal. Read under: Universal Joint Ball Adjustment Page 1 Page 2
Put Graphite grease on the ball collar cork oil seal. read HERE
Yes, pretty certain that my problem was both the ball collar cork oil seal and the torque tube retrainer oil seal. I have the kit and will be putting it all back together soon. In the meantime, I have ordered a u-joint rebuild kit as the bearing areas on mine are scored and it is a sloppy fit. I think I may as well bite the bullet and install an okie bushing while I have everything apart. I'd heard it was a pain to replace, but having investigated it some, it seems pretty straighforward. There is no telling how many years those bushings, seals, etc., have ran dry. When I purchased the truck several years ago, there were no leaks. I checked and it wasn't leaking because it was dry! Since then, I have tried to keep some lube in the tranny, but instead I have lubed my garage floor.
It looks like the removal of the old seal and installation of okie bushing is within my abilities. One question, and it's probably a silly one, but here goes: Having never seen an okie bushing as compared to a factory bushing, how can I tell if someone has already installed an okie bushing? I'm sure that wouldn't come out nearly as easy as the factory bushing. Here is a photo of my propeller shaft. You can't really see it in the photo, but the bushing currently there appears to be steel with a bronze bushing inside it. The bushing has tiny holes in it. It appears that there is a step (maybe the back edge of the bushing) about one inch inside the tube. Does this look like the standard, factory bushing?
That is not silly question its a good question. It is kind of hard to determine if there is a Okie or a original factory bushings installed.
The bushing in the your photo looks like an original front factory bushings. Picture of an original front bushing The original bronze bushings have those tiny holes in them. At least the ones I've seen. The Okie bushings are smooth with a couple spiral groove in them.
The bushing puller should be able to pull both the Okie and for sure the original bushing.. If a Okie is installed sometimes the bushing puller just pulls out the bronze bushing. Not good.. The only other way is to pull out the propeller shaft, read Okie History below.
The Okie bushing was created by the long gone National Machine Works Inc in Oklahoma, hence the name Okie. It shortened the time and effort to repair the torque tube bushings and oil seal. If you did it the way GM did it, you would remove the entire torque tube from the rear axle. Remove ring & pinion gears Pull out the propeller shaft from the torque tube. Use special tools to remove and replace the bushings and oil seal. Then reassemble everything. Pain in the Butt. With the Okie bushing you just pull out the front bushing. Then from the front of the torque tube you push in the Okie bushing sleeve, which has the Front bushing, Rear bushing & Oil seal inside the sleeve. Less Work. You leave the old rear propeller shaft bushing and oil seal in the torque tube.
With the propeller shaft out of the torque tube, you can pound out the oil seal and the bushings with a long pipe from the pinion end of the torque tube.. GM used special tools.
Thank you, Jorb. You have been a lot of help. This is the kind of job you can't take to your neighborhood transmission shop, with millenial mechanics who have never seen an enclosed driveshaft. So, I figured I would try the job myself. But, even having read all I can find on-line, and reading the service manual, there are always surprises. So, it's nice to be able to talk to someone who has been there and done that. So, I'll be ordering an okie bushing and puller from Jim Carter later this evening.
Oh, and I just saw your photo of an original, factory bushing. That is exactly what I have. The holes give it away!
