NEW U-joint making noise

[KShortell]

I replaced the front U-joint a couple of months ago with a new one from NAPA. The old one was a Spicer only a couple, well maybe three or four years old, but with relatively few miles on it.

Now, just a few hundred miles later, this one's making that metallic rattle, too. Now, for the strange part. This is the front U-joint in the two-piece driveshaft, the joint with basically zero angle to it!

The old one was stiff in one direction. The new one kind of did the same thing until I sprung the ears like you should. This relieved any preload on the caps. It made no noise after that. Recently, though, the noise is back and actually louder than the old one.

Has anyone else had this happen? I'm kind of stumped unless the yoke ears are a bit too tight. I don't think that's the case, however. Has anyone found one brand of U-joint better than the others? These are the joints with the C-clips inside the yoke ears.

I used a greasable joint. The Spicer that was in there was greasable, too, and not cracked or anything. I got 110,000+ miles out of the factory originals. I'm pretty disappointed that a replacement would make a noise after 15-20,000 miles...

[TwinTurbo]

that's part of the problem that there's 0 angle in the shaft, you actually want a little angle in it (with both sides opposing each other so harmonics are cancelled out) so that the rollers turn and are lubed and will not freeze through rusting.

As for brands, i find the spicers superior to all other. I hate the cheap ones and also the brute force joints, they have some terrible sharp edges around the center and the machined trunnions making them more prone to breaking.

I was also never fond of greasable joints, when you need to grease them they're junk anyway and need to be replaced. The zerc fitting seriosuly weakens the joint itself.