Trusted a Helper Friend of Mine To BARELY Drill Out The Misaligned Holes on My Smaller Steering U Joint. He Made a MESS! Now Its Either By a New One for Like $50! Or Weld The Holes Up, Smooth out, And Redrill THE CORRECT WAY so that the Pin Will Fit. Is It Possible to Weld on The Smaller Steering UJ's, Or Am I just Gonna Have To Fork The Cash over and Buy a New one? Thanks. P.S. Its a 3/4" DD to a 3/4" Round Smooth, No Splines.
If it is steel, not iron, I'd weld it for sure. These days with all the crappy parts, it might be cast iron? Mig welding will leave a hardened spot, but a new sharp chainsaw file works nice to dress out the hole, if you just weld part of it up. Wet a rag and wind it through the joint X to keep the heat away from the joint cups.
If its a good quality joint it will be forged or machined from billet so tap a peice of brass the same size as the steering shaft into where the steering shaft fits to avoid having to try and file the inside of the hole , then Just quietly weld it up with the mig, a little at a time to keep the heat down and avoid shagging the u-joint, pull out the brass plug,clean up and redrill.
If it is on the DD side of the joint, you might consider inserting the DD shaft into the joint and making plug welds. I've welded steering joints to the shafts on several cars with thousands of miles and no issues. You want good weld penatration, but also want to avoid overheating the bearings. I fully agree with wrapping it with a wet rag. Let it cool slowly.
Go over to your trusted friend. Remove 50 bucks from him. This way there are 2 lessons learned: 1. You don't trust him with your life 2. He doesn't eff up parts
By the looks of it I would use the Wet Rag and weld it also.. Just make sure you have proper heat and penetration. CJO13
After Some Research, Its A "Sweet" Brand Weld On 3/4" Smooth X 3/4" Smooth U-Joint. Although The Rod is a DD Shaped Rod, I Dont Think Ill Have a Problem After I Solidly Weld Both Pieces Together with a Flux Arc Stainless. Ill Keep It Cool at all times.
Put your ground clamp on the side you are welding so current doesn't have to pass through the needle bearings. Don
Even though you are welding it I would still drill a hole all the way through and put an appropriate sized roll pin in it just for giggles. Don
If you are going to weld it, remove the u-joint. Keep the joint end as cool as possible. You won't have any problems.
Put the u-joint in a bucket/cup of water and weld it, much easier than taking it apart. A friend tig-welded this Flaming River u-joint for me just the other day.
Like Phil1934 said! I would drill it 90 degrees from your current location that is misaligned. I would then weld up the holes. Easy fix! Brent
Get a universal joint made for the double d shaft - they are not made to go together anyway esp if the holes are screwed. The double d will come loose as there isn't anything for it to seat into and bite against. You could weld the universal to the shaft - as another has shown - only one side needs to be able to be disassembled.
For $50 its not worth the effort to weld it up. Let alone the fact that you will drive out all the grease from the joint, and wonder if i will be safe and not sloppy.
I would just use ER70S (standard mild steel). I also agree with OJ, if you are using double D shaft you should use a joint made for it. At least two things need to be done right......steering and brakes!
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