Re: 1929 u joint
Yep, welcome to U Joint Hell ! I bought a U Joint, made off shore, from one of the national vendors and it was junk. It rattled from loose bushings, the machine work was poor, and the drive shaft spline was off center. Changing a U Joint is too much work to install a low quality unit so I did not use it. I put out a May Day and located an NOS unit made in Chicago in the 1960s which looked like a piece of art compared to the off shore unit. In the attached photo compare the off shore unit (L) to the Chicago unit (R). I was cosidering getting a Bob Drake "needle bearing" unit but found mixed reviews and decided against it. Some claimed the needle bearings were not compatible with the application since there is no radial freedom and insufficient mis-alignment to rotate the bearings. One recommendation was to use the Bob Drake unit after removing the drive shaft roller bearing. Others reported fit problems while some found performance totally satisfactory. I probably would have tried the Bob Drake unit if I was unable to find a quality NOS bushing type joint. Might try and find a good used unit - they are out there. Let us know what route you go and how it worked out.
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