Been There, Done That

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Exactly this.

Except I was the guy holding onto the steel rod and yep, my buddy missed with the sledge hammer and hit me right on the arm with it.

Trying to knock a frozen U Joint out of the drive line on an old International truck.

I wound up using an arc welder to run a small bead on the U Joint cap to shrink the bastard before it finally came out.

I sure as hell don’t miss those days.

12 thoughts on “Been There, Done That”

  1. Man! There is a lot of trust there or stupidity! I wouldn’t do it. That is a crushed skull and death at most, a debilitating hematoma and/or death at the least. That is a FAFODS….

  2. Pro Tip- When installing u-joints on a big truck, liberally apply Never-Sneeze to the caps and into the yokes before installation. If you’re not the guy that is the next to remove them the next guy will thank you for what you did.

    Pro Tip #2- dilute your Never-Sneeze 50/50 with 30 wt motor oil, or some such. It stretches that expensive compound and actually makes the stuff easier to apply while not diminishing its effectiveness whatsoever.

    Some may say these Pro Tips are not worth what the reader is paying for them but they sure worked for me when I was doing my thing.

    • Good advice.
      I found an old can of the real deal original Never Seize a couple years ago that was all dried out.
      A few teaspoons of 30 wt and a couple minutes of stirring brought it right back to life and it’s juuuuust a little bit soupy.
      In other words, it’s perfect.

      • Perfect indeed. Right on.

        I learned that Never Sneeze trick from a wonderful man who was considered to be the best truck and equipment mechanic in my area of NorCal. He had a shop and usually worked alone, and had folks bring him their trucks from miles around. One guy who owned a small fleet of fuel tankers would bring his trucks from over 200 miles away to have George work on them. I was lucky enough to have been mentored by him. He always did it right and he taught me a bunch.

        I’ve had guys tell me that there’s no such thing as Never Sieze. That it’s actually called Anti-Sieze.
        I win the bet every time when I show them a can of Bostik Never-Seez.

  4. A smart move to make to be holding the steel rod from the OTHER side so that a missed swing goes away from your head, not towards it.

    • Exactly. You can see the miss coming too.
      But this is China, where life has almost no value.

  5. I welded a 3′ rod to the side of an old kingpin, and that allows my apprentice to stand off to the side in case I oops on a swing. Works on trunnions, torque rods, and of course kingpins.

  6. That just leaves my guts in a knot. There’s So much STEWPID going on there. And the consequences for just a small Oopsies are big.

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