Best/strongest u-joints

mike diesel

mike diesel

I'm alright.
Sep 6, 2012
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I picked up this 5" x .125" heavy duty drive shaft this afternoon. It came out of a sled pulling truck. It currently has these grease able u-joints in it, I am not sure what brand they are but the shaft was made by Page Driveshaft up in Idaho. From what I can gather, it is best to steer clear of greasable u-joints due to them being weaker (supposedly).
Is it recommend that i should swap these u-joints out before running this shaft? I'd like to have this shaft in for tomorrow's races but don't want to risk having a u-joint fail. Is this something I need to be concerned about? Truck is full weight, 7000lbs, hoping to break into the 10's at this race.

It looks like napa and autozone don't have any non greasable Spicer u-joints in stock, and I am hesitant to throw in duralast u-joints.



 
Awenta

Awenta

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Sep 28, 2014
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No way to ID what they are?

Yeah solid are stronger. Get a set of anything as backup if you can't find spicer locally.

I'd run them if I couldn't find spicer jointd. They're either strong enough to hold up or hurt enough to fail. Depending if they've got any hooks on them.

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JoshH

JoshH

Daggum farm truck
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Feb 14, 2007
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Spicer if you can find them or Neapco (not the ones the chain parts store sell). Go to a driveline supply place. When I was in Idaho, there was a place called Six States that sold driveline parts and was pretty big in that part of the country. Do they have those in your area?

Edit: here you go.
Salt Lake City
247 West 1700 South
Salt Lake City,
84115
(801) 488-4666
Toll free ( only): (800) 662-3712
Toll free: (800) 453-5703
FAX: (801) 488-4676
 
mike diesel

mike diesel

I'm alright.
Sep 6, 2012
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SLC, Utah
Ahh yes six states. I have purchased from them before. Been a few years so I forgot about them. I'll check them out tomorrow morning.

The drive shaft has 2 hooks on it, I wanna a 2.6 truck.
 
c20elephant

c20elephant

C20ELEPHANT
Apr 25, 2013
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Phoenix, Arizona
Just a thought, IF you install a greased type u-joint in the position where it would compress the fitting hole as opposed to stretching the hole would that make any difference strength wise.?
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Last edited:
clrussell

clrussell

pro-procrastinator
Sep 23, 2013
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If you can't find spicers let me know. We have an awesome driveline shop a couple miles from my work. I only use spicer


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JoshH

JoshH

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Chevy1925 said:
im not following you guys :confused:
Click to expand...
They are postulating that if the joint is installed so the grease zerk is on the other side of the yoke that it will be stronger because the force going forward will be trying to squeeze the fitting rather than rip it. In other words, it will be working under compression rather than tension. I'm not sure how true that is, but it makes sense in theory. In reality, I doubt it makes much difference either way; I've never seen a u-joint fail by ripping the cross in half.
 
Awenta

Awenta

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Chevy1925 said:
im not following you guys :confused:
Click to expand...
So when it's turning the grease fitting is on the inside corner of the direction it's spinning. That joint is being compressed while the outside corner is being stretched.

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Chevy1925

Chevy1925

don't know sh!t about IFS
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Oct 21, 2009
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JoshH said:
They are postulating that if the joint is installed so the grease zerk is on the other side of the yoke that it will be stronger because the force going forward will be trying to squeeze the fitting rather than rip it. In other words, it will be working under compression rather than tension. I'm not sure how true that is, but it makes sense in theory. In reality, I doubt it makes much difference either way; I've never seen a u-joint fail by ripping the cross in half.
Click to expand...

agreed but see below, maybe im still not following lol.

Awenta said:
So when it's turning the grease fitting is on the inside corner of the direction it's spinning. That joint is being compressed while the outside corner is being stretched.

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Click to expand...

Sooooo, when the shaft turns 180* from where it is in that pic, the exact opposite happens and really gains you nothing as its always going to be swapping from compressed to stretched as it spins, correct? i just want to make sure im understanding whats being posted cause i dont see it being stronger no matter what way you install it with a spinning driveshaft and the yokes not parallel with the shaft.
 
Awenta

Awenta

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Chevy1925 said:
agreed but see below, maybe im still not following lol.



Sooooo, when the shaft turns 180* from where it is in that pic, the exact opposite happens and really gains you nothing as its always going to be swapping from compressed to stretched as it spins, correct? i just want to make sure im understanding whats being posted cause i dont see it being stronger no matter what way you install it with a spinning driveshaft and the yokes not parallel with the shaft.
Click to expand...
The force on it won't change though. As long at its spinning the same direction.

I agree with Josh though. It's a good theory but relatively useless in practice. The whole cross is hollow so a leg will still snap off

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