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01tj
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That's exactly what they are, just stamped alloy.
Been using them for about 5yrs now.
Been using them for about 5yrs now.
I'd be weary of the needle bearings personally. Not knocking the conventional U-joint, but if I spend the money of joints I tend to shoot for CTM or Superjoint type. They're more expensive but in a selectable hub axle where the shafts don't spin constantly they're fine with occasional lubrication.
Not to trash CTM or any other joint, but think of it this way......
I want a standard joint in an alloy axle for one reason. The joint becomes the weak link. It's cheaper, faster, and simpler to change a joint on the trail. I had a set of the OX joints. Sweet, and twice as strong as a conventional joint, but to strong! My axle shaft flange at the joint failed before the joint did. That destroyed the flange, and cost me an axle. No warranty on abused, or modified(HD jointed) axle shafts!
I want a standard joint in an alloy axle for one reason. The joint becomes the weak link. It's cheaper, faster, and simpler to change a joint on the trail. I had a set of the OX joints. Sweet, and twice as strong as a conventional joint, but to strong! My axle shaft flange at the joint failed before the joint did. That destroyed the flange, and cost me an axle. No warranty on abused, or modified(HD jointed) axle shafts!
Treading a little deeper here... In theory this sounds awesome, but it never happens! Every time I've ever broken a U-joint or seen one break (100's of times) it's always destroyed the axle shafts. If you have a U-joint stronger than the shafts, then the shaft will break. Replace the shaft and keep going. Especially when you're dealing with chromoly. I'd rather break one shaft at a time than a U-joint that causes a catastrophic domino effect.
That's true if you don't catch it when it starts to fail. And there's always a catastrophic failure that you can't catch! My experience has been the opposite of yours!
Normally when a shaft breaks on me it's been while in a full throttle assult up a hill climb. I ruined a $350 High pinion 44 short side shaft in a situation where the caps exploded and caused the ears to overlap themselves and self destruct. Something as simple as a faulty U-joint cap had my rig down for several weeks awaiting a replacement chromoly shaft assembly and out of a lot of cash. Had it just been a stub shaft to break (ideally this should be the weak link), I could have swapped on a stock 19 spline stub and been back on the trail in about 10 minutes. Just recently I did break a chromoly stub shaft at Gulches and was very excited that's all it was. U joint and inner were both intact.
Had them in my Ford for four years. Was religious about greasing them (taking out the plug, installing a zerk, and pumping them until grease oozed out) before any big trips. Prior to my last big trip greasing, I noted that the driver side U-joint was broke. Took it apart and the needles were dry. Turns out the grease was being pumped around one needle giving a false sense of being greased. Passenger side was also dry after being greased.
Back to non-greasable joints and just replace them each year prior to driving to Dixe Run in October
Back to non-greasable joints and just replace them each year prior to driving to Dixe Run in October