OK I could stick with ford ones, but the flange is 110mm diam - way OTT for a bec. What's the smallest commonly available UJ I'll be able to find in a scrappy?
Ta
Bob

Ever thought of looking in your socket set??

Mick

you on about prop flanges?

Ooops!!!

There was me thinking steering

Mick

PMSL at some one turning up to SVA with a 1/4 inch drive knuckle joint welded to the engine output shaft.


SVA Inspector ' WTF is that?'

car owner ' well its halfords PROFESSIONAL'

pmsl

Bob,

you could always try a bike scrappy, shaft drive bikes have a UJ at the engine end. its quite a lot smaller than the ford items.

Cue Woodster

Mick

Scary, you wouldnt really contemplating using a socket set joint for your steering column would you

quote:

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you could always try a bike scrappy, shaft drive bikes have a UJ at the engine end. its quite a lot smaller than the ford items.

---

Yammy V-Max V4 has a UJ at the engine end of the shaft and its rated to 140 odd BHP no problems, IIRC they dont change that bit when they turbo them either, so up to 350BHP and more torque than your R1 would ever dream of pushing out.

Shafty bikes - interesting thought - yeah I'll follow that up. Yes it was the prop I was thinking of. There are 2 prop sections, for the back section I'll put a donut at the front and a ford UJ at the back (has to bolt to a sierra diff)
The front section is really short so that's where I was looking for smaller UJs and possibly a slidey joint (save bike output from axial loading). Thanks for your input geezers!
Bob

Scary, you wouldnt really contemplating using a socket set joint for your steering column would you


Well funny as it may seem, yes I probably would!
Whether it would pass scrutiny by the SVA is another issue.
However when you consider that the Sierra forward UJ consists of two shafts joined by a disc of flexible plastic then a decent quality 3/4", (or even 1/2" ) socket set UJ seems positivly over engineered.
I concede that wear may become an issue but as far as integrity goes I think it would fit the bill.

Mick

[Edited on 15/3/05 by Mix]

The abuse my 1/2" socket u.j. has had would have ripped the rubber sierra one to shreds and it's still going strong.

Fair enough, I guess it may be as strong if not stronger than an actual steering UJ, but I'd imagine that if you're driving for say an hour, that joint is going to be moving to some degree or other for almost all that time, probably much more continued load / movement than it would experience when being used for its intended purpose. Also its probably a chrome vanadium alloy so Im not sure if it would weld particularly well to a steel column would it?

Sorry if this seems like a bit of a rant but with something as critical as the steering, if the proper item only costs a few quid (Gartrac amongst others sell proper "Group 5" Escort UJs with splined or weld in ends for around £15) it seems a bit silly to instead buy something that will cost almost as much then adapt it to do something that it isnt designed to do, in the hope that it will be OK

Only my opinion, I just dont want people to end up in ditches just to save a quid or two

cheers

Chris

just shelled £65 for a brandnew honda crx (?) (the 4wd thing) prop - looks nice & small & neat & tidy - that'll do for the front section.
Cheers
Bob