68 LeSabre u joints

[raym]

I have a 68 LeSabre 2 dr ht with 350 2bbl auto and want to replace the universal joints. There are 4 with 2 of them in the cv joint. Are the 2 in the cv joint the same as those at the front and rear of the drive shaft unit? I am also planning to replace the ball seat kit in the cv joint. Any info or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[BigRivy]

More than likely they are the same. They were on my '65 Riviera, which takes 5 u joints. They have two double Cardon joints that take two each. There are several things that need attention. Most seat kits come with a ball. Some ***** are replaceable, with the right puller, some are not. If your ball is worn and no longer round you will need to replace it. If you have a replaceable one you can pull the old one off and drive on the new one. This job can be a real pain if you don't have the special tool. Make sure you don't bend the mounting post if you remove it without the tool. Some driveshafts don't have a replaceable ball, meaning that you have to take it to a machine shop to have the shaft put in a lathe and have the worn out ball turned down to a post that can have a new ball mounted on it. The most important thing in my opinion is to keep all the parts clocked into the right position. This is real important on all two piece driveshafts. They are all balanced as a unit and if you don't put everything back in the same position your shaft will be out of balance and can cause all kinds of problems. If I remember right the factory service manuals have some pretty decent info on this. I had to learn all this after I had my '65 Riv shaft rebuilt at what was supposed to be a good driveshaft shop. They just randomly reassembled all the parts of the shaft. It had a vibration and only lasted about 250 miles before it was giving me real problems again. I took it back and showed them the factory info on keeping everything in order. They were suprised that it mattered. Obviously not as good of a driveshaft shop as I had been lead to believe. They rebuilt it again and had to send it to another shop to be balanced. They had to weld a pound of weight on it to get it straightened out. It worked after that, but it was a real headache. After that I learned how to do all the work myself as I have owned many old Rivieras and they all need driveshaft work at some point. There are pictures in the factory manuals with instructions on how to mark everything to keep it in order. I think it would be real hard to describe it with words, the pictures explain everything. In other words if you are going to do this yourself I would try to get the best info available on how to do it before I started. Factory manuals are not that hard to get. Bob might even have the info on this site. Driveshaft work can sometimes be a piece of cake and sometimes it can test every bit of shop skills you posess. Good Luck.