Are there any aftermarket bolts or girdles for a 1 1/16" u-joint, I think that's a 1310 series, on a 9"? I'm thinking it might be a good idea to go ahead and replace mine. I have no idea how long they've been on the truck. At this point, the u-bolts are probably the weakest link in my drive train, followed by the old 9". I've found the Precision Universal Joint brand at Summit but they look no different than that which I can get at the local parts store. Priced about the same, too.


Lawrenceville, GA

Y-Guy Charlie:       The quality of the u-joint is determined by the needle

                   count in the "cups" explained an old (than me) Spicer rep.

                   The more (finer) needle's the better it is. hope this helps.

                                                bill

Bill

Pelham,Al

It's the u-bolt that holds the u-joint onto the pinion yoke that I speak of. I found a place, Cobra Valley Parts and Accessories, which might have what I'm looking for. Gotta take some measurements. I was hoping Moroso, Strange, or Moser, and etc. would have something so that I could find it locally.


Lawrenceville, GA

Well, I got them from Cobra Valley parts.  Turns out they are Moroso parts for "Chevy 12 bolt and Dana 60 with u-bolts."  They seem to fit right.  The part number is 85800.

I have a 9" with 1 1/16" diameter bearing caps and 1 13/32 between bolt centers.

Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie,

       Wally told me that Strange makes them, and I find Moser does also. Strange has a setup with caps and hardened bolts.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

The girdles seem to fit right.

The bolt are allen head.  They cannot be properly engaged with an allen wrench.  A 1/4" hex is required.  I just picked up a cheap 1/4" wrench and a cheap 1/4" allen wrench.  I cut a 1/2" length of the allen wrench and welded it to the wrench, making sure to leave enough to fully engage the bolts.  I had to grind a little of the back of it to fine tune the fit between the drive shaft ad the bolt head.

Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie - I've had some troubles with socket head capscrews in the past, due to the inability of the tiny hex drive to deliver sufficent torque to preload the fasteners. When you weld on the hex tool - the temper "goes south" too. This is a personal experience of mine anyway.......

Take a look at this Caterpillar hardware catalog - pages 339 and 355 if you would. The twelvepoint head screws (usually) have the same cap OD as the socket heads but the available tools will deliver much more torque to the fastener. These capscrews are also made of 170,000 psi tensile material - stronger than SAE Grade 8. You will end up with both more preload (clamping force) ....and more reserve strength (fatigue resistance). Perhaps one of the listed parts will fit your application.

www.cat.com/cda/files/87031/7/hardwre.pdf 

Virtually every part in the Cat Hardware catalog is available overnight - but maybe not "inexpensive".

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

I've not had much luck with socket head screws either. The problem is that I only have about 1/2" to work with and there aren't many tools that will fit that space. A box end wrench will but the girdles have a counter-bore so that the head of the bolt will be recessed and I will not get a good bite on the bolt. There's not much material to spare; I don't think I could grind the clearance necessary to properly engage the bolt with a box end wrench without weakening the girdle severely. These socket head screws are 5/16 with thin nuts so we're not talking a lot of torque. Plus they have lock washers.



Thanks for the link to the catalog. There are some interesting fasteners. Say, where does one acquire a torque wrench that does 1350 ft/lbs? I think I saw that in "cutting edge bolts"


Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie -

I was looking at the U-bolt "girdle" design, it depends on the thickness at the center of the span and the length of the capscrew "grip" to do what it needs to do. The counterbore rim material around the screw heads is just along for the ride in this application. It could be redesigned to give you some more room - and you could dress/radius the edge of the driveshaft forging if you needed to. 

My guys carry around a hydraulic wrench made by "HiTorque" that runs off a 7,500 psi powerpack. I forget what the stall torque is - but its up there - uses a 1-1/2 inch drive socket for the biggies. The new power heads are aluminum which cuts down on the size of people we have to hire......I don't have a picture of the wrench either - but I do have a couple of pictures of where we use it.

  

We just stripped this dude apart and put a new rotating gear and thrust bearing in it in August. Its a 58 yard power shovel that weighs 2.5 million pounds.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

That thing's huge! Do you all give tours? I would like to see that up close. The people walking around give it scale but I'm sure the true scope of it's size cannot be had until one is right next to it.



If the girdles give me any trouble I'll come up with something else. I'm sure they are overkill for my power level, anyway.


Lawrenceville, GA