Drive shafts - new U/J woes ......is it just me??

[BartonStag]

Hi all - thoughts please if you'd be so kind.
Reassembling the drive shafts - so here comes the easy bit .......wrong !!
The U/J's came from one of our well known suppliers. I've polished the bores for the outer cups within an inch of their lives so hadn't anticipated any issues. However, they were either tapped in or eased in with vice jaws nice and evenly, but some are great but a couple are tight-ish. All needle rollers had additional grease applied before any fitting commenced. On one joint the centre "cross", slides side to side one way but appears to be stuck over to one side in the other plane. It won't move but the outer cups are in place with the circlips attached. Is it me missing something here or are these U/J'S suspect?? Have fitted U/J's in the past both for myself and at work and never had this happen before.
Any thoughts appreciated as usual.
Cheers
Gord

[mole42]

It's possible that one of the rollers has got itself out of the stack and laid across the bottom of the cup. That will produce the effect you are getting. Guess how I know?

[jbuckl]

Yes, have had this happen.
its as if they are the wrong size.
cocked over just enough to dig in.
has wrecked a yolk in a new shaft.
i don’t know which item is mis sized.
likley to be the shaft though in my case as they were re manufactured items.
never had this with propshaft ujs though.
as Richard says, by this stage, a needle can have fallen over too.

have had to cut the joint to get it back apart too.

[BartonStag]

yep you may well be right guys . I'll knock them out, get a couple more and go again.
Cheers
Gord

[jbuckl]

Having had it happen, if I needed to do it again…. And I do… At some point, I’d be measuring the cups and bores before any assumptions that they are correct and can go straight in.
fwiw if there are sizes that don’t appear correct, a ream to the yolk holes is probably the way forward.

[MandM]

if a roller has fell out and is in the bottom the cup then you wouldn't be able to fit the cir clips, they might just be out of line try tapping the shaft around the eyes for the cups with a copper mallet, this may centralise the rollers, I just used the vice to fit my cups as knocking them in can cause things to jump around, lot of extra grease to keep the rollers still, have seen people put a slightly better lead on the camfer on the cups before, back in the 1970s , best ujs I found where ld parts. done 12 twelve sets for my car plus spare shafts etc, you will always get one that might just need refitting or replacing, 2 pairs of hands make the job easier .just my experience others will have their own wisdom.