U joint repair question

[Billrog]

There's been a bearing missing in the drive shaft of my post hole auger for nearly 20 yrs. and it's still going strong.

 

[ovrszd]

There's been a bearing missing in the drive shaft of my post hole auger for nearly 20 yrs. and it's still going strong.

He didn't say what the PTO shaft was for. But if it's a 540 rpm implement it's gonna be subject to a lot more revolutions than a post hole auger that's ran at an idle.

 

[Billrog]

You are correct normally I would just put in a new U join or look in the bottom of the cup for the missing one.

 

[crazyal]

I had one of the u-joints go on my truck and only had a tiny window to actually replace it. I got the replacement and one of the needles was broken in three places and would bind up. Being that it was about 9:30 at night so there was no way I could get a replacement and I needed the truck the next day I installed it with the broken needle. That day I bought a replacement back up. But the backup didn't have the zerk fitting so I didn't want to use it. It took about a week before the one with the fitting came in so I returned the one without the fitting. That was at least 5 years ago and the spare universal is still sitting in my tool box. The fact is that they don't spin like a regular bearing. Also the closer the shaft is inline the less the universal does.