A Universal Problem – Dave’s Garage

Many automobile manufacturers have been making drive shaft universal joints as a non- serviceable item. These universal joints are also sealed, with no grease fittings or provisions to grease the joint. When the joint eventually fails, (due to lack of lubrication) the entire drive shaft has to be replaced. These universal joints are held in the yokes with stakes, punched in with a press at the factory, and are therefore referred to as “staked in” U-joints. Ford, Chrysler, GM, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Jaguar and BMW all have models utilizing staked in universal joints. The Mazda Miata and virtually all Subarus have those joints.

I recently noticed a vibration in my Subaru Outback. When I removed the driveshaft between the transmission and the rear axle both universal joints were binding, with rust powder falling out of the trunnion. Subaru has been using staked in universal joints for years. Subaru does not offer a replacement joint. According to Subaru, the drive shaft is not serviceable, and when a carrier bearing or a universal joint fails, the entire drive shaft assembly needs to be replaced. The cost for a replacement drive shaft is roughly $850. I was not about to purchase an $850 driveshaft because a $30 universal joint failed. Outside of the joints the driveshaft still looked new, no rust anywhere.

Once again, Google is my friend. I found a driveshaft shop that makes replacement universal joints for staked in universal joint drive shafts. This replacement universal joint has an internal snap ring designed to work with this type of drive shaft yoke.

I ordered two joints. The original joints were easily pressed out with my press. Once there was moderate pressure on the trunnion cap, bang! They popped right out.

Installing the new joints was slightly tricky. I had to dress the trunnion cap mating surface in the yoke with a half round file to remove the burrs from the previous staked in joints. I also needed to dress the inner face of the yoke to make a nice flat surface for the new snap rings to go. Once assembled, I needed to tweak the caps a tad to make the joint flex easily. Slight persuasion with a ball peen hammer was required to seat the trunnion caps with the internal snap rings. Once everything was done, there was no binding or free play in the joints. Before I installed the drive shaft I applied grease with the grease gun until I could see fresh grease oozing out of all four trunnion caps. Here is one of the old joints. Notice the burrs on the bearing surface.


Please email all inquiries to: Dave
or snail mail
32 Turkey Hill Road
Richmond VT 05477

Hello 2016!

First, wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year! We had our Colorado daughter and grandson here for Christmas, which was a good all-family-together time, including my brother Scott and wife. Wendell and I had actually gotten the bathroom wallpapered and a new shower curtain installed a couple of days before their arrival. I had “sort of” cleaned the house – wouldn’t want them to be too shocked, if squeaky clean! I didn’t get a chance to make wreaths this year, another first, but there’s always next year I suppose. We did get the Christmas tree up three (!) days early and put the lights on it. The rest was up to our guests, who did a fine job. We undecorated the tree and got it outside before it started shedding needles. It now has another life as a bird feeder with suet hung on it.

alligator wrenchWe were at a loss for what to bring to January “Memorabilia Meet”, when it occurred to me that we had a mysterious tool on the shelf that I had picked up at an antique store a couple of years back. Maybe it was automobile related. This might be an opportunity to get some educated opinions as to what it is. Wendell took it along and put a note on it asking for ideas as to its identity and use. We got some wild stabs, but no direct hits. Well, now this is the age of Google and computer search engines, so we subsequently gave that a try. Bingo! You probably never heard of an Alligator Wrench, but that’s what it is. Looking at it you can see where the name comes from. It was used mostly by steam locomotive maintenance workers to loosen nuts and pipes. I never would have guessed.

The Stowe car show is months away, but we’ve got to be thinking now about what items we’d like to offer for sale in the souvenir booth. We’d like to Jazz up our inventory a bit. If you have any ideas as to items you think would sell well, we’d like to hear them. Contact me or Kit Wheatley if you have any suggestions. We’ve heard umbrellas, coffee cups with VAE on them, water jugs, again with VAE, cloth tote bags with VAE or Stowe Show printed on them. Any ideas would be appreciated. Again, have a great 2016!

1979 MG

1979 MGBDick & Kit Wheatley’s ‘79 MG

When did you purchase the MG, Dick?

I purchased in February 2006. I was looking for a reasonably priced MG, spotted this online one cold Sunday afternoon. The car was located in Maryland. I threw a bid on it (wanted to see how ebay worked), didn’t think too far ahead, then left for a tennis match in Essex Jct,. When I came home there was a message from ebay “Congratulations, you won, now pay!”

Why an MG?

I thought they had nice clean lines, the ones with the metal bumpers, my first choices were a bit pricey.

What have you done to it…any future restoration plans?

The car hasn’t needed much. I filled the tank with gas one day, parked on a hill and gas leaked out the filler cap, stained the black rubber bumper, white, so I took it to a local body shop and they painted the rear bumper the same color as the body. The front bumper was painted when I purchased it, has held up pretty well. I did replace the exhaust, so I could hear the radio.

What was the mileage when you got it and how many now?

In the 90’s when purchased, something over a 100K now.

Was there a nice trip that you and Kit have had with it?

Mostly local trips, a few garage tours. It has been a hit with our grandkids.

1979 MGB
1979 MGB

Any other points members would be interested in reading?

I had to find a carrier to bring it up from Maryland. We live on a dirt road, slightly hilly. The guy showed up with a car trailer after dark on a snowy night with a plan to back into our driveway. He could not get up to the garage, it was too slippery. The driver says “why would anyone want to live out here?”, he was from Florida. I pulled it up the driveway with the tractor and pushed it into the garage. The seller told me he would fill the rear hatch with spare parts, but the lid would not open, no matter what I did. I called a good friend, Rod Rice, the next day. Rod said his son Dave had a similar MG in South Burlington and Rod had a key to his garage. Without hesitation he said he would meet me there in 45 minutes. We looked at the rear hatch mechanism on Dave’s car and determined the only way to get into mine was to drill the lock out. Simple procedure, we found a pin had slipped out in transit, ordered a new part to replace it, everything was fine. I think Rod loved any excuse to get out of the house for something to do with a car. Rod was a great guy, helped our son with a Boy Scout project, our daughter with a school project on the Long Trail, always there ready & willing.

David Lamphere’s 1919 Franklin Touring

1919 franklin noseThis 1919 Franklin Touring has been a car David Lamphere has known about much of his life. Franklin manufactured about 150,000 cars in Syracuse, New York from 1902 to 1934. This one has a story to tell…

World War I had just finished its four year blight in November of 1918, our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, died in January and according to Wikipedia, Amānullāh Khān became king of Afghanistan.

1919 franklin interiorIn Rutland, Vermont that year George Lamphere was shopping to buy a new car. He and his wife, Eva, lived at 3 Clarendon Avenue and their creamery & dry goods store on Main Street must have been doing fairly well. There were a number of auto dealerships in the area but the one at 107-109 West Street must have caught their eye because they sold an air cooled car where you didn’t have to worry about the radiator freezing up during the winter. Another thing they might have seen in the car ads was, “you could put the accelerator to the floor, even in the desert, and run it that way all day or until you ran out of gas”. That is how good these engines were. The dealership was named Rutland Machine and Auto Company and they sold Seldon trucks and Franklin Automobiles. The Franklin touring car pictured above is the car the Lampheres decided upon.

David and Cereta Lamphere are VAE members from Westford, Vermont; George Lamphere is David’s grandfather and the Franklin touring sits in David’s garage today. The car was passed from George to David’s dad, Richard, and then to David.

1919 franklinThe Franklin Company had sold about 43,000 cars by 1919 and had the process fairly well perfected by then. They were using 6 cylinder engines in 1906 for some of their models and by 1914 all Franklins had six cylinder engines. Managing the air flow was important in these air cooled vehicles and until 1922 all that was required was a fan between the engine and the transmission to help “pull” the air through. As the horse power increased they moved the fan to the front of the engine and continued to use the cylinder fins to force air down past the hot cylinders, this was called a “down-drafter”. As the 6 cylinder engine power grew, from 24 HP to over 100HP, the company changed again in 1930, to keeping the fan in the front but now forcing air “across” the engine thus calling it a side drafter. A much more efficient way to keep the engine cool.

It appears George and Eva began a family tradition with the Franklin car. Over the years they had the 1919, a 1923 sedan and two 1929s sedans. One of those 29s later was reworked into a pickup truck which also sits in David’s garage. David’s dad, Richard, added a 1930 and 1931 sedan to the family Franklin history and then David took his turn when he was 15 years old, when he purchased a used 1930 sedan for $45.00. David also bought a ’31 roadster at one point bringing the count to eight Franklins.

Richard was an engineer and loved to tweak things and make them better. While the 1919 was in his possession he added an electric fuel pump with a pressure regulator, to keep the carburetor from handling anything over one and a half pounds of fuel pressure. He also added a fuel pressure and a vacuum pressure gauge to the dash. The ignition switch has an extra position so when you engage the starter a second battery is wired in to have 12 volts. Once the engine is running, the switch is moved to the 6 volt position.

It is probably not totally unusual for an automobile to be purchased new and be in a family for ninety eight years, but Wheel Tracks did not want to miss out telling this story.

As you have read in our classifieds the 1919 is for sale. David and Cereta need to down-size and have decided to try to find a good home for the old girl, that still runs perfectly. The hope is that the car stays in the VAE family and will have many more stories to tell years from now.

How many of you will be watching for those Rutland addresses the next time you go through. Please take a picture of what is there now and send them to Wheel Tracks.