The caps should slid in smoothly with about the same resistance from start to finish. A few light taps with a hammer will seat the cap so you can install the clip.

What probably happened is one of the needle bearings fell over and now is in the bottom of the cap. This will prevent the u-joint from seating fully and if not remedied will ruin the u-joint. Remove the cap and inspect the needle bearings.

Newly installed u-joints can be a little stiff, but should have a full range of motion. You can gently whack the new u-joint assembly once or twice and that will usually settle the u-joint in place and smooth out its function.

 

The caps should slid in smoothly with about the same resistance from start to finish. A few light taps with a hammer will seat the cap so you can install the clip.

What probably happened is one of the needle bearings fell over and now is in the bottom of the cap. This will prevent the u-joint from seating fully and if not remedied will ruin the u-joint. Remove the cap and inspect the needle bearings.

Newly installed u-joints can a little stiff, but should have a full range of motion. You can gently whack the u-joint assembly once or twice and that will usually settle the u-joint in place and smooth out its function.n

x2 on this. Those wheel joints can be a PIA when this happens. Try putting a little grease on the needles to help hold them in place.

 

I ahve to go along with the lost needle, but Did you clean up the ears with a wire wheel before installing.. it makes a difference whne you press them in over all that old gunk, VS. a cleaned out ear...

 

Did you grease them first? It's possible to get hydraulic lock due to too much grease in the needle bearing.

 

Try cleaning up any rust with a brush. I've had them be a little difficult to press the caps into the shaft, but never taking serious hits. I usually tap them in with my ball peen.

 

I didn't clean the ears out at all, I'll have to give that a shot.

The u-joints I picked up have a grease fitting and had a small out of greese already applied in order to keep the needle bearings in place, so hopefully that's not the problem.

It's nice to know that I'm just not going insane and that it's supposed to be easier than this I'll try the wire brush trick, hopefully that will help

thanks!

 

If you have to hammer them in, it is OK as long as the joint moves freely once installed and lubed. If it's tight, it's a no-go.

 

I always have found that a little cleaning of the bores of the yokes with some emery cloth or the like to get the rust and dirt out helps a bunch. So does a thin film of grease on the same surface before attempting to install the new cup.

 

For sure, I would never try to put new ones in without really cleaning things up, get rid of any rust and polish them with emery cloth so they actually look like clean metal. then a light grease and press them in. they'll still be tight but won't bind up on the way in.

 

One thing is do not use a hammer unless you are 100% sure that non of the needles have fallen over. Kiss that joint good buy are get a new on. With a couple of off set sized sockets and a bench vice you should be able to slid the caps in place easly. If is a pain in the butt that clean up the ears as suggested above and make sure that the caps are not twisted in the ear. if the caps ar binding up, adjust the press so the caps sitting square, you may get a little "pop' when the cap seats properly, then it should slid in with only some resistance.
once the u-joint is in and you can get the snap ring in than you can tap the u-joint with a hammer to seat it in the center so that it rotates smoothly.

 

can you take a picture to show how far on the caps were able to fit on?

I have a feeling that if it's bad you probably have one of the rod bearings in there that fell out of it's spot along the edge.

or if it's not all that bad maybe it's just dirty.


Are you using a ball joint press to do this as that would make things super easy.
You can rent them at your local auto parts stores for free as long as you return them within a few days.

 

When I replaced mine, the "ears" and u-joints were rusty and worn beyond belief (bought it like that).

.... so here is my little story:

If you used a sledge hammer to get out the old ones like I did then it is very possible that you slightly "tweaked" (aka bent) the ears at the end of the axle. I was careful not to hit the ears with the sledge hammer directly but let me tell you the old joints required a lot of serious blows before they would even budge. I didn't realize until putting my new U-joints in that something wasn't quite right (the caps would not go in smoothly or far enough) so I took it all apart again and inspected. At first I thought I might be crazy but one ear looked like it "might" be a little bent. Long story short, I put the ear in the vice and "tweaked" it back out. Oddly it didn't seem that hard to flex the ear in the vice just by levering on it with your hands. After that I tried putting in the new U-joints and they went in like butter and far enough that I could get the cir-clip back on (just barely). The new joints were smooth and I haven't had a problem with anything yet.

Lesson learned:
- Use a press