The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1946 1/2 Ton U-Joint upgrade ideas?

The u-joints they use in the '46 1/2 ton and the '50 1/2 ton is one serious mickey mouse design.

The joints they use in the 3/4 ton torque tube rigs seems way beefier and stronger.

Short of swapping the tranny, driveshaft, and rear end to an "open" driveline.. anybody know if any upgrades to this joint?

They are complicated but they do work. Constantly lubed and away from dirt and water. They are a pain to get at and more of a pain to put back together, especially when the shop manual tells you to adjust the ball housing with shims so that it is "not too tight or not too loose!" The weak point is in the small bolts they use to hold the trunion in place. When you figure that these 4 bolts are all that is taking the torque from the motor to the wheels.
I don't know of any replacement other than going to another trans and diff.

Well in there lies the problem.. those four dinky @$$ bolts are charged with transferring all the power to the back wheels.

The joints in the 3/4 ton trucks are torque tube, as well, but far heavier duty.. it would be cool if somebody made that sort of joint with the right size splines on either end.

The only real advantage I see to torque tube rigs, is if you happen to drive thru some old barbwire or fence wire in tall grass, it won't get caught up in the spinning driveshaft.. other than that, the "open" design used on the larger trucks seem to hold up just fine exposed to all sorts of muck and crud.

Fumblin, there is a company in Omaha called Baum Iron, they sell some spline items for tractor applications. I wonder if they might have something that would work. I bought a spline sleeve from them a few years ago to repair my cub lowboy. If you could provide me with some information, I could try and find out. Or maybe a tractor repair shop in your neck of the woods may have a catalog you could look at.

I found a fellow 'bolter who happened to have the full joint and all the fixin's to put it back to stock.. i'm going to give the stock route one more go.. if that comes apart, i'm gunna yank that SOB out and put a t5 in there with a Nova rear end and call it a day.