brake cylinder bleed nipples

The hammer is trying to get it back apart.... they are almost impossible to dissassemble once you have needles in the bottom of the cup (they push through the cup and break it .... guess how I know :clown: ). There was one yoke here that someone else could get apart that I thought might be tight enough to use. I ended up pushing one of the cups almost through so I could get to it with a 1mm wheel in an angle grinder and cut through the cup, and chisel it apart. They had already broken the base out of the cup. once apart I found the yoke quite munched up, so it must have failed in use.
 
Picture 33 & 34 is what Gerry is talking about & how to disassemble a universal joint. Hammers are not necessary & banned!
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RINGER said:
Picture 33 & 34 is what Gerry is talking about & how to disassemble a universal joint. Hammers are not necessary & banned!
View attachment 211528
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It doesn't work if you have brokne needles in there..... unless they break through the cap so you get an even push without wedging.

Well its together now. I just put the star in one end then pushed it to far through so it couldn't move back out. Then tried to line up and push the other cap on. I'm not exagerating it took 11 attempts (sure on most of them it was probably fine) but as cap is still sitting proud of the yoke you can grab it in the vice and pull it out to try again.

Its amazing there is still a small amount of movement in the star with one end fully inserted into the opposite cap. Plenty (hugely) enough to snare a bearing in the other cap as you insert it. I was careful this time not to push the first cap through to far, that bit hard last time. You see if you end up with a needle under the star, it won't push back through, as you can't press evenly, so it wedges every single time you try. After an hour or so trying, you will give up and cut/chisel the cap out .... its the only way (especially if the needle bearing has already cracked it). I'll post of photo of the one here someone else couldn't get apart later. My phones no longer connectiing to computers with the USB plug, so I'll need to figure out a way to get the photos off
 
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Send photo from phone as an email attachment to yourself then open that email on your computer. Modify photo size to suit. JG.
 
DoubleChevron said:
. I'm not exagerating it took 11 attempts (sure on most of them it was probably fine) but as cap is still sitting proud of the yoke you can grab it in the vice and pull it out to try again.
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I have done it that way also If the vice will grab the cup then turning the yoke back and forth can ease the cross out!
 
Moving along, I managed to chisel out one of the ball joint keys. it measures 2.75 x 2.5. The key I've bought is 3.00mm (measures @ 2.9mm). Its slightly large.

Does anyone know what the original un-mangled size of the key should be? I'm thinking every balljoint on this car has had its balljoint key not lined up when they were last assembled (probably back in the 1970's).

edit: Fun I just tried the other side ..... No ball joint keys over there .... :) I'm thinking maybe they shoudl be 2.75 x 2.75.
 
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2.3 -> 2.5 seems to be the magic number for the thickness of the ball joint key ( 1/2 dozen wipes with the flap disc in the grinder). The key could probably be even higher. eg: 2.5 x 3.25 .... 3mm key is what i have though (that measures at 2.9). So 2.5'ish x 2.9. Better than no keys ... or mashed flat keys for sure :) Once that tapers and pull down its never moving either way! ( I wonder why the key exists at all ?).

seeya,
Shane L.
 
They are not square so get out the file. They are about 15mm long.
It is not ez to fit the swivel to the ball & upper & lower control arms when everything is being hooked up plus line up with the keyway & key.
That's what has always been an issue.
 
RINGER said:
They are not square so get out the file. They are about 15mm long.
It is not ez to fit the swivel to the ball & upper & lower control arms when everything is being hooked up plus line up with the keyway & key.
That's what has always been an issue.
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I'm hoping a key fitted properly fixes up the large amount of slop in the passenger front lower ball joint on this car. I'll need to shim the top ball joints to remove there slop. The balls themselves look unmarked, so wear must happen in the cups? Either way, this is all fun right :dance: If stuff didn't frustrate you to tears, you wouldn't feel like you succeeded when its finally together and working (or in my cars "sort of" working :clown: ).
 
DoubleChevron said:
Once that tapers and pull down its never moving either way! ( I wonder why the key exists at all ?).

seeya,
Shane L.
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If a ball joint nut comes loose the key will prevent the ball from rotating on the taper. It is important, as is the split pin in the nut. Do not ask me how I know!!!!
 
gerrypro said:
If a ball joint nut comes loose the key will prevent the ball from rotating on the taper. It is important, as is the split pin in the nut. Do not ask me how I know!!!!
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Excellent, I was thinking the taper through the ball might be off vertical by a number of degrees. So the key locates it into the right position.
 
DoubleChevron said:
I'm hoping a key fitted properly fixes up the large amount of slop in the passenger front lower ball joint on this car. I'll need to shim the top ball joints to remove there slop. The balls themselves look unmarked, so wear must happen in the cups? Either way, this is all fun right :dance: If stuff didn't frustrate you to tears, you wouldn't feel like you succeeded when its finally together and working (or in my cars "sort of" working :clown: ).
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The key will not fix the slop. Remove the upper cup and fit the ball/ space and upper-lower cups together on the bench. You will soon see where the slop is. The centre spacer can be ground down to remove some of the slop depending on the degree of wear. A badly worn ball joint will bind up on lock if the centre spacer is ground to remove slop. New joints are available but they are mostly provided without centre spacers to enable easy adjustment with shims, or even those awful adjuster lower cap units.
 
These parts are matching tapers & once
fitted properly & nut torqued then split pinned, yes.
 
gerrypro said:
The key will not fix the slop. Remove the upper cup and fit the ball/ space and upper-lower cups together on the bench. You will soon see where the slop is. The centre spacer can be ground down to remove some of the slop depending on the degree of wear. A badly worn ball joint will bind up on lock if the centre spacer is ground to remove slop. New joints are available but they are mostly provided without centre spacers to enable easy adjustment with shims, or even those awful adjuster lower cap units.
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WHy didn't I think to do that without it being suggested? Silly, but I was thinking maybe the slop was due to the ball not fully seating as the key wasn't line up .... but regardless of the ball height, the two cups will still pull down around it (Duh!).
 
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The ball is just like a self centring bearing & needs to fit snuggly between the two cups just like Gerry indicated.
They generally don't wear appreciably but checking & shimming if needed is recommended.
 
RINGER said:
The ball is just like a self centring bearing & needs to fit snuggly between the two cups just like Gerry indicated.
They generally don't wear appreciably but checking & shimming if needed is recommended.
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John I have seen some very badly worn ball joints over the years. The ball can get quite an ovalisation. I have done things like selecting a set of lower cups ( which do not wear as much as the upper cups ) and finding a ball with less wear than the others, then mounting it all in a lower arm and using an electric drill to drive the ball working it around with valve grinding paste to re circularise the joint. A pain in the neck but achievable. Now of course you can just buy new ones!
 
No problem there, but there are specific reasons these components are/were worn [maybe out] & that is what should be established.
These reasons are primarily
1. incorrectly or poorly adjusted [way too loose] as currently seems the case in point.
2. inadequately lubricated &
3. of course consequential wear caused
by really bad potholed roads of old.

Like all bearings & bushes looseness compounds wear - correctly adjusted & lubricated parts virtually don't degrade or wear.
e.g. modern semi trucks & trailer wheel bearings & king pins exceeding 1 million kilometre even outlasting the truck's lifetime.
 
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