THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

Hi all,

Well, I can officially say that I'm not going to find any u-joints any time soon. The good news is that I'm not crazy, my shaft is an odd-ball. After trying u-joints from SAV (27mm), and EI (27mm), and picking the brains at the local drivetrain shop, it's currently a fruitless and somewhat hopeless search.
I do know that I need a Lobro 31.25mm cap diameter. My drive train guy visited the only Lobro dealer here in Canada, which happens to be in Mississauga and he threw water all over our fire. Once Lobro was bought out many moons ago, my u-joint was discontinued.

Sooooooo....unless you have a wonderful selection of NOS Lobro u-joints that I can pick through, I will have to look at procuring a used "non odd-ball" shaft and 27mm u-joints like the rest of the Pinzgauer community.

It's really too bad, I've always liked to be different....

Dave

Spoke to my machinist. You could go one size up and have the caps turned down if there is enough metal and the center will still clear or (and I prefer this one) go one size under and have custom turned caps made. With regular greasing you will likely never wear them out.

Good luck!

Clive

PS Karl has a parts truck in Montreal and it had a drive shaft last time I saw it. May be worth a call.

63rover wrote:Spoke to my machinist. You could go one size up and have the caps turned down if there is enough metal and the center will still clear or (and I prefer this one) go one size under and have custom turned caps made. With regular greasing you will likely never wear them out.

Good luck!

Clive

PS Karl has a parts truck in Montreal and it had a drive shaft last time I saw it. May be worth a call.

Thanks Clive, I can always count on you to have some options for me! I will contact Karl to see what a shaft is worth. Waiting for Scott at EI to get back to me too. I like the sound of having custom turned caps, just might be more economical to replace the whole shooting match. Stay tuned!

tx Dave

If you know the specs you want or have something to work from Mt. Hope isn't too far.

Just ordered a used unit from Karl. Thanks for the tip Clive.

Glad I could help.

I was never worried about changing the joints

That's an exceptionally odd document. Where did it come from? U joints are a common replacement part as far as I'm aware!

Ah military field service makes sense.

After reading this thread I went out and greased my u-joints. They are good, no replacement needed.

So, Saturday rolls around....I've got my "new" used drive shaft and two brand new factory u joints from EI. EDIT FOR CLARITY - DRIVE SHAFT WAS NOT FROM EI, BUT A LOCAL VENDOR TO ME. What could go wrong?. Luckily, before removing the old u joints from the shaft, I decided to measure things up. Sure enough, the new u joints are 26mm, not the 29mm required by my shaft. At first I thought I was crazy (again), but the snap rings don't even touch the inner circle on the yolk.

Installed the shaft out of frustration and was please to have a nice, noise free balanced ride. So despite still needing to replace these things eventually, it can wait. Guess I'll return these back to EI and scratch my head some more. Sorry, I have to laugh or I might cry........but in all this, what are the odds that I would have gotten a second 'odd ball' drive shaft???? What the heck is the correct cap diameter in the rest of the Pinzgauer world? The ones sent to me by EI are either 26 or 27mm.

I'd use this on it: https://smile.amazon.com/Red-Line-80402 ... ref=sr_1_1?

VinceAtReal4x4s wrote:I'd use this on it: https://smile.amazon.com/Red-Line-80402 ... ref=sr_1_1?

Is this your all around go to for fittings and bearings? I just happen to have an Amazon order in the making, so I'll throw it in the cart. Don't think there is much saving these u joints though, they are pretty stiff and notchy. Can't hurt though.....

The grease sounds good to me. I just put my truck away for the winter and plan to pull the driveshaft; after hearing all of your issues I thought I would do some preventive maintenance. I plan to grease the joint and give them lots of full range hand wiggling to really work it in well. As one of my early mentors put it, "Grease is cheaper than parts!"