as well as the fact that you could pull the front slip yoke by lets say 3" without falling out, but it will allow for the yoke going up and down a little as you drive. So that will cause vibration. If the yoke is too far in, lets say only 0.25", then the driveshaft and slip yoke will bang onto the tranmsmission whenever you go over a bump or have passengers in the back

 

okay well i measured the pinion anges with a very precise angle meter I use for building airplanes accurate to .5 deg. however real error might be a bit more due to the mounting surfaces.

it looks like the difference between the trans and rearend is less than 1 deg

Im back to U joints now. I forced the drive shaft around and I could see slight flex at the bearing near the trans. it looked like the driveshaft was moving more than the yoke. You could see it but not really feel it. When forcing the driveshaft up at the rearend it make a clank you could easily hear.

I went to napa but they gave me the wrong U joints so i'll have to wait until tomorrow to try again.

-Gun

 

If their is any play in the rear U joint, then most likely that is the problem. One thing I noticed is the front U-joint has no retainers and just doesn't appear to be the right. Are they no snap rings that hold the caps on?It appears in the photo that one cap is out a little more (like 1/16") than the other that is at 90* lateral. Are you sure that the front U-joint is the right one. What holds the caps on/in?

 

The rear one doesn't look right either. No retainers (maybe one?) for the caps (not the ones with the clamps).

 

there were c shaped retaining rings on 6 of the caps the other 2 were held in by the U bolt things.

 

once you have the right u-joints, changing them is as easy as counting 1-2-3. That's the good news.
Evil: good thought I see it now as well. But it seems like they are all inside snaprings.
The T5 yoke I got from NPD used outside snaprings (1310 style).
Gun: for getting the right u-joints you need to know the cup diameter of both axis (they might be different).
Common values are: 1", 1-1/16" and 1-1/8"
if you are using inside snaprings like on the front joint, then you will need to measure the inside of the u-joint including the snaprings (it's the same as the inside of the front yoke or the front driveshaft). you might come up with a value of 2.344"
if you have outside snaprings (you don't) or clamps you need to measure the length of the u-joint overall (in your case the axis bolted to the rear yoke). 3.25" would be common there

long story short. my guess (only a guess) is that all axis with inside clamp are 2.344" inside and cup diameter of 1".
and the axis stuck in rear yoke might be 3.25" long and the cup dia probably either 1-1/8" or 1-1/16"
as said i'm just guessing, but once you know how to measure them you'll know in the shop if you have the correct thing.

hope it's any help.

 

oh and btw. once you have the driveshaft out, check the pinion for play.
There is play in the rotational axis. that's normal. but you shouldn't be able to push the thing up/down/left/right/in/out
If you can it might indicate a fried pinion bearing

check the yoke in transmission as well, shouldn't be able to move up/down/left/right
only rotate and pull/push
oh and do yourself a favour and get both u-joints. they should be around 25$ each

 

Going back and looking for about the 5th time, I do see half of one in the second photo. It starts where the alamite is and goes left. I never did like the inside snap rings. Anyway, if theirs some play in the U-joints, then my bet is thats where the viberation is starting from. The drive angles look OK from the photos but it still may help to put a gauge on them. One big enemy of these cars is when they sit for long periods of time, often the grease dries up. You may want to go with a synthetic type (or part) grease as these are not as prone to dry as fast. This may help. Also, don't rule out that a wheel or tire may be out of round. If you can find a shop that has the machine to "Road force" balance the tire, then that may be a problem also. I had one that was out like 150 lbs. It the same as everytime the tire made a revolution, it was bouncinglike someone was hitting the bottom witha 150 lb wack. I would still do the U-joints first, then look to have them road forced. (Are they Goodyears?)
http://www.armorb.procarcare.com/inc...04/4fig15.html

 

okay so now it really is the drive line.

When installing the new Ujoints the fist set on the trans went in flawless but the back ones were tight.

The back ones were tight enough that during the install the ears on the drive shaft that hold the bearings bent a few degress inwards. I even cleaned, filed off any burs, and greased them before attempting to install.

I made the mistake of doing both rear bearings at the same time it wasnt a big deal until about half way in they got tight and then I realized there was no way to take them out and try again. Kept pressing them in and they were going but it ended up bending the drive line ears on the rear of the shaft.

Maybe I can find a shop that can straighten them out for me [&:]

-Gun

 

uhhhh .... the only tool you need to put them in is a socket and a little tlc from a hammer. pressing (with a vice?) was not a good idea.
(i know i know the shop manual says to do so)
maybe you can bent them out yourseleves with a presse working backwards. maybe even with the vice turning outward or anything
and the next time you try and press them in hold something in between the ears.
But something definetly is off.
If you can't get them in normal you will never get them out. if it's too much pressure you might as well destroy the bearings.
So from that ..
A good driveshaft shop in the states will be able to cut the end off and weld on a new u-joint holder on it.
That might be the best thing tio resolve your issue ?!

maybe someone else got another idea