1957 Fairlane U joint replacement

[chapingo17]

Question I'm the process of replacing U-joint on car. Is there two kind of U-joints for the front and back? What's my best option? Where should I buy them at?

[Ford Blue blood]

Any parts store, although I prefer NAPA.

[hiball3985]

There are two types if you have the tapered drive shaft.

[BP57CUSTOM]

I replaced mine a while back. The local parts store had the front but I had to get the rear off ebay. It was a new old stock item.

[Marc]

My local fleetpride usually has spicers in stock for the front & rear.

[chapingo17]

The rear and the front are the same?

[Marc]

Different. I believe the rear has a slightly larger bearing OD.

[RICH MUISE]

Chapingo.....since you're replacing ones that are already there, just do some accurate measuring and bring the info to any parts store. The determining factors for u-joints are the overall length of each leg (over the caps), the outside diameter of the caps, and the type of retention/cap. Some caps are smooth (for u-bolt type retainer), some have groves for clips, etc. Be aware you need to confirm the info for each leg of the u-joint.
A standard u-joint will usually have both legs the same, but combination u-joints are readily available and in reality are pretty standard. If your parts store doesn't have the size/type you need, they should be able to get them in a day or so.

[chapingo17]

Thank you I will check to see if I have a tapered drive shafts. Thanks to everyone for the great advise.

[RICH MUISE]

Doesn't matter what your driveshaft is as long as your just replacing stuff that's already there. Now, if you were fitting a new driveshaft because of an engine conversion, that would be a different approach to what I said above.

[chapingo17]

This week I replaced both u joints on drive shaft. The u joint closes to the rear end needle bearings were completely dry. The other ones weren't so bad. I did used the same type of u joints for both sides. Also, notice the end caps were slightly longer in length in comparison to the old ones.

[RICH MUISE]

Longer caps? Sounds like it's time to take a minute to recheck things. Make sure the ujoint's legs on the differential end (maybe both ends, don't remember) isn't so long that it doesn't properly seat inside the raised ribs on the yoke. If it sits on top of those ribs, you're going to have major problems.
I vaguely remember discusions about several types of oem u-joints used on '57's. The ones that use the u-bolts that clamp over the caps are the ones that would have that raised rib I'm talking about.Zoom in on the pic below...I added a red arrow pointing to that raised rib/tab

[John Palmer]

Longer caps? Sounds like it's time to take a minute to recheck things. Make sure the ujoint's legs on the differential end (maybe both ends, don't remember) isn't so long that it doesn't properly seat inside the raised ribs on the yoke. If it sits on top of those ribs, you're going to have major problems.

Exactly correct, and make sure you did not knock off a roller bearing and have it stuck inside the end of the cap preventing it from seating as Rich said.  Don't even ask how all the old guys know of every way to screw something up! LOL

[Ecode70D]

  Some of the 57 Fords have two completely different sets of U joints.  The back ones are weird looking like little pillow blocks.  They were used in 49 to 56 Fords.  I don't have a picture of them, but I think that Hiball Jim had that setup and he had to change his rear yoke  flange in order to install a normal, sane rear U joint.   He also had to have a new drive shaft made up.     

[hiball3985]

Jay, As far as I know the 57 rear end was a one year only design which had the weird 49-56 type rear yoke and large pinion seal ( also refereed to as a mechanics type joint ) and used the tapered drive shaft, all the  the 57's I've owned over the years had this type. Some people say they have a standard driveshaft and regular later model U joints, maybe they started that on some of the last built 57's??? When I changed my rear end, just third member, I used a later model small seal standard yoke and had a new driveshaft made.