1957 Driveshaft Universal joints have limited travel in one plane

[RHahn57]

During the early part of the teardown I rebuilt the driveshaft with new universal joints, wrapped and stored it for future reassembly. That day arrived yesterday so began skipping it in to place and realized it could only pivot enough to align with the differential every 90 degrees. Turns out the new UVs are touching the shoulder of the saddle very early in their throw. Anyone seen this issue. It would appear I could grind the shoulders down on opposing sides of the UV but open to other options…

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[74 Harley]

Is the rear suspension hanging loose? If so then you need to put jack stands under the axle to compress the springs. Then check it. It had no issues before, did it?

 

[Tom Alpers]

I think I ran into that problem once when I replace some standard duty u-joints with heavy duty ones. The body is bigger/thicker which is why they are heavy duty but the extra material interfered with their articulation. If the interference is minimal I don't know why you couldn't grind off some material.

 

[RHahn57]

I think I ran into that problem once when I replace some standard duty u-joints with heavy duty ones. The body is bigger/thicker which is why they are heavy duty but the extra material interfered with their articulation. If the interference is minimal I don't know why you couldn't grind off some material.

That is my suspicion as well and plan to swing by NAPA today and look at options, if any. Likely will just grind a little off the offending shoullders though.