I see you use that powdered ferrous oxide u-joint lube. I've had a lot better results with simply grease, myself....
Old picture - same location. It is an active gravel pit - more like a sand pit. Ujoint exploded - drug myself down the kill in reverse, filling everything with sand. Everything - inside and out looked the same after 2 days of wheeling in it ;D This was before full circle snap rings - I had a locker up front and the non Spicer joints just sucked.. That u-joint didn't last 3 hours - I broke ujoints back to back to back 3 events in a row until I went moly outers and full circle snap rings...
Does anybody have a good photo of the mod they did for the full circle snap rings? Seems to me that this would be something best handled by a machine shop so I'd love to see how people are DIY'ing it...
I used a Dremmel on my F150 shafts - on the Bronco shafts I put a 4" cutoff wheel on a Rotozip and went to town.
Please excuse the crappy old cell phone pic - but you will get the idea looking at this.
The only thing you have to do is grind enough metal for a snap ring to fit on the bottom side of the u-joint cap. It also has to be ground flush so the snap ring fits without binding up - it is very simple to do. Notice how much space there is under the ear on that chromo shaft? All aftermarket chromo shafts come machined for full circle snap rings because the clips that come with u-joints are not intended for off-road use.
Please excuse the sign on the wall - that is my brother's doing :-X
You can easily check to see if you have removed enough metal by holding a snap ring next to the ear - when the rin is flush or clears the button of the u-joint cap hole you are set.
When you go to put them together make sure to remember to put the snap rings on before you start to put it together - stick it behind the u-joint seal.
Feel free to ask any more questions - easiest mod to do to keep your front end together until a certain point..
