Military-Vehicles: [MV] Dodge U-Joints

[MV] Dodge U-Joints

araskew (araskew@concentric.net)
Fri, 17 Oct 1997 00:48:50 -0700

Hal,

I am not familiar with the WC-1 but I have a WC-12 that needed U-Joints
many years ago and the U-Joints on it may be similar. I ended up
making them up from 2 Spicer U-Joint sets, a 5-3000X and a 5-3009X. It
took a lot of research through the dimensions in the Spicer catalog
(at a NAPA store), but in the end it payed off. See if the following
description fits.

The U-Joint is a combination round bearing cap and flanged "Mechanix"
type bearing cap. The two round bearing caps mount in the drive shaft
and the flanged bearing caps are held to the companion flange on the
differential with a heavy horseshoe clamp and 2 nut & bolts.

I can't remember which one is which, but one of the Spicer sets has all
round caps and the other has all flanged caps. Just trade a set of caps
from the two sets and you have 2 useable U-Joints.

There is some modification needed on the flanged caps however to allow
clearance for the bolts. The flange on the new U-Joints have threaded
holes for the attaching bolts where the original U-Joints have no holes
at all. The holes in the new caps are at a narrower center distance
than the holes in the companion flange so they can't be used. All that
is needed is a little grinding on the ends of the new U-Joint bearing
cap flange for bolt clearence and they work just fine.

The bolts do not carry any of the torque - they just clamp the bearing
cap to the companion flange. The torque is carried by the heavy key on
the bottom of the bearing cap flange.

I have been running this WC-12 on the road since 1976 and have never
had any problems out of this arrangment.

It has been many years since I performed this feat and am drawing a lot
from memory. Check out all the numbers before you start making
modifications.

Hope this helps. Good Luck.

Andy

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