1965 Imperial cv/double cardan ball and spring

[64Imperial]

Well I just found out that my 1964 imperial actually has a 1965 drive shaft! I don't know if the original owner placed it on the car or If it was from factory (my car was produced in June of 1964)

I'm about to replace all of its parts,u joints, ect. but does anyone have any part numbers or links to a new ball and spring for inside the cardan joint?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Loadrunner]

Chrysler was famous for "running changes", they never waited for the next years model to unveil changes, so depending on build date the driveshaft may well be the one installed at the factory.

 

[64Imperial]

Chrysler was famous for "running changes", they never waited for the next years model to unveil changes, so depending on build date the driveshaft may well be the one installed at the factory.

Im beginning to see that lol definitely understand why if it makes everyone's lives easier why not? Lol don't have to worry about all the prop angles as much. They just kept the two piece axle on mine... go figure lol

 

[Loadrunner]

The big luxury cars of the day quite commonly used a double U joint right off the trans, for smoothness.

U joints are very particular about angle. Too much - like a jacked up 4x4 - and they won't last, but no angle is equally bad, causes a lack of rotation of the needles, and wipes out the crosses.

Spicer Corp U joints are the only ones to use, although GMB and maybe a couple other brands are fine for light duty use, I always source Spicer joints and prefer the ones with a zerk in the cap is clearance allows it.

At the driveline shop where I worked right out of school back in 1990, we only used NLG2 Black Moly grease on U joints, a light grease so the needles can rotate in cold weather.

 

[64Imperial]

The big luxury cars of the day quite commonly used a double U joint right off the trans, for smoothness.

U joints are very particular about angle. Too much - like a jacked up 4x4 - and they won't last, but no angle is equally bad, causes a lack of rotation of the needles, and wipes out the crosses.

Spicer Corp U joints are the only ones to use, although GMB and maybe a couple other brands are fine for light duty use, I always source Spicer joints and prefer the ones with a zerk in the cap is clearance allows it.

At the driveline shop where I worked right out of school back in 1990, we only used NLG2 Black Moly grease on U joints, a light grease so the needles can rotate in cold weather.

Thank you for the tips! I did purchase dana Spicer u joints. I definitely will purchase some black moly grease!

I've had too many "off by a hair" parts to know u joints you don't want to screw up! Lol These damn parts being made poorly is getting old! Lol

The prop angle I'm hoping will be fine. When I removed the drive shaft I made sure to note all of the shims, took photos and marked everything. I am replacing the shocks and leaf springs so I might need to re do the angles, but I hope not lol

 

[Loadrunner]

Apparently 1-3º is best.

 

[CBODY67]

If you are getting "original ride height" rear springs, you probably should not need to worry about driveshaft angles. As you'll be putting it back like it was produced rather than what it became with use. Good that you documented everything!

Other than "luxury cars" with longer wheelbases, GM used two-piece drivshafts on lots of 1959+ cars and light-duty picpups. Just not with the double-joint in the middle. Might have been hard to make a single-piece shaft work in a '59 Impala with an X-frame.

As to the moly grease, will that NLG2 spec cross with Ford-spec moly wheel bearing grease? You can get it in grease gun tubes in a few brands. I used to get Valvoline Ford-spec syn grease, but now it's been changed to "gray" from "blue", or something like that. Use it for chassis lube and wheel bearings, and other such things.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67

 

[64Imperial]

I actually found an exact match for the ball and spring in the double cardan joint! GMB 261-0616!

I did tons of research and found old Dana catalogs that listed 1966 Lincoln Continental along with Imperial sharing the same part! Dana no longer makes it but GMB does.

Went right to rockauto under the 66 Lincoln and there is was!

 

[64Imperial]

Just pressed on perfect!

 

[Loadrunner]

Looks amazing. More pics/assembled?

 

[watchfatha]

Re driveshaft angles: There are three areas where shims were used on our 64-5-6 Imperial driveshafts: 1) Under the driveshaft bearing carrier in the middle, 2 and 3) between the attach points (left and right) of the rear torque arms that ran from the rear axle to the chassis. This suggests that even in a "normal" ride height car there was still room to account for production variance of a degree or two that required correction.

A word about our rear leaf springs and "normal" ride height: The FSM for years 64-5-6 states that the existence of a bit of reverse arch in the rear leaf spring can still be considered "normal" and should not by itself warrant spring replacement. As a result, in most of the 27 Imperials I've owned, I do not replace springs (unless a leaf is clearly broken), but instead replace the shocks with adjustable air shocks. This enables me to avoid disrupting anything in the original settings/shims and I try out different ride heights to achieve the smoothest result. So far, so good.