The Ford Barn

Daves55Sedan · 09-26-2011, 01:33 AM

After noticing a U-joint squeeking, I pulled up in the paved driveway in front of the garage to drop the driveshaft and discovered I was right. The front U-joint was displaying some friction. Pushing some grease in with a grease gun, revealed one cap was not filling with grease. I decided to pull two U-joint C-clips so I could remove a cap and poke a rod down thru the u-joint to break the obstruction. The C-clips on the 55 Ford cars are the "in-side" type. The second clip I popped out went flying so fast I couldnt see where it went and being coated with old hard grease didnt make a sound when it landed. I scoured the driveway and it was not to be found. I combed the grass with a large magnet or about a half hour without results. I went to check two auto parts stores and they did not sell the clips by themselves and didnt have the U-joint in stock. I came back home and decided to look for some spare clips I had stashed in a hardware caddy. I found a bunch of "out-side" type clips, then I ran across four "in-side" type clips. I grabbed the one I had removed and compared it to one of the spares. ouldnt you know, the spare clip was for a larger diameter cap. ARGGGH.
By now, two hours has passed since I started this. I happened to be walking from where the driveshaft was, laying on the driveway, back into the garage in the 30 inch space between the wall and where my 55 ford Courier was sitting in the garage and there was the C-clip, laying right in the middle of the 30 inch space on the floor. Praise the Lord! That clip had flown about 35 feet from where I was working.
After re-assembling the U-joint in the driveshaft, I pumped more grease in the U-joint. Sure enough, grease popped out of all seals now, and the friction was gone.
Moral of the story. Dont pop out U-joint C-clips in the driveway. I could have carried the driveshaft into the garage and set it down close to a corner so the clip would have hit the wall if it decided to go flying. Theres your 2 and a half hours to do a half hour job. Lesson learned.

Ole Don · 09-27-2011, 01:57 PM

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Dave, you are one lucky dude. Up above we were talking about the George Poteet streamliner at Bonneville last week. He lost one of those clips at 9,000 RPM's. It was not a pretty sight. The fellows in the pits must use magic, as George was back on the salt racing the following day shortly past noon. In the pit on a table was three drive shafts, all the the clips now kept in place with a gob of epoxy.

09-26-2011, 01:33 AM	#1
Daves55Sedan Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Granite City, Illinois Posts: 3,008	Story of the flying U-joint clip After noticing a U-joint squeeking, I pulled up in the paved driveway in front of the garage to drop the driveshaft and discovered I was right. The front U-joint was displaying some friction. Pushing some grease in with a grease gun, revealed one cap was not filling with grease. I decided to pull two U-joint C-clips so I could remove a cap and poke a rod down thru the u-joint to break the obstruction. The C-clips on the 55 Ford cars are the "in-side" type. The second clip I popped out went flying so fast I couldnt see where it went and being coated with old hard grease didnt make a sound when it landed. I scoured the driveway and it was not to be found. I combed the grass with a large magnet or about a half hour without results. I went to check two auto parts stores and they did not sell the clips by themselves and didnt have the U-joint in stock. I came back home and decided to look for some spare clips I had stashed in a hardware caddy. I found a bunch of "out-side" type clips, then I ran across four "in-side" type clips. I grabbed the one I had removed and compared it to one of the spares. ouldnt you know, the spare clip was for a larger diameter cap. ARGGGH. By now, two hours has passed since I started this. I happened to be walking from where the driveshaft was, laying on the driveway, back into the garage in the 30 inch space between the wall and where my 55 ford Courier was sitting in the garage and there was the C-clip, laying right in the middle of the 30 inch space on the floor. Praise the Lord! That clip had flown about 35 feet from where I was working. After re-assembling the U-joint in the driveshaft, I pumped more grease in the U-joint. Sure enough, grease popped out of all seals now, and the friction was gone. Moral of the story. Dont pop out U-joint C-clips in the driveway. I could have carried the driveshaft into the garage and set it down close to a corner so the clip would have hit the wall if it decided to go flying. Theres your 2 and a half hours to do a half hour job. Lesson learned.

09-27-2011, 01:57 PM	#2
Ole Don Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: St. Michael, Minnesota Posts: 1,713	Re: Story of the flying U-joint clip Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements) Dave, you are one lucky dude. Up above we were talking about the George Poteet streamliner at Bonneville last week. He lost one of those clips at 9,000 RPM's. It was not a pretty sight. The fellows in the pits must use magic, as George was back on the salt racing the following day shortly past noon. In the pit on a table was three drive shafts, all the the clips now kept in place with a gob of epoxy.