1941 Century Torque Ball U-Joint

[Cronjie]

Looking for a good torque ball u-joint. Did the larger engine cars use the same torque ball tranny set up as the smaller engine cars? Should I only be looking for u-joints for Centurys and Roadmasters? Thanks in advance.

[kgreen]

For quick reference, I checked Bob's and found one u-joint for a 39 that was specific to the small engine series.  That leads me to believe that the large engine series has a different part for 1939 and I would presume for 1940.  To eliminate doubt, I would go to your chassis manual, which is not with me at the moment, and verify.  If you don't have that manual, it would be a great purchase.

 

I also discovered that Bob's is a difficult site for conducting searches.

[Dynaflash8]

25 minutes ago, Cronjie said:

Looking for a good torque ball u-joint. Did the larger engine cars use the same torque ball tranny set up as the smaller engine cars? Should I only be looking for u-joints for Centurys and Roadmasters? Thanks in advance.

Only the setup.  All of the parts are bigger and stronger, and do not interchange with a Special or Super.  Century, Roadmaster and Limited were the same.

[Dynaflash8]

15 minutes ago, kgreen said:

For quick reference, I checked Bob's and found one u-joint for a 39 that was specific to the small engine series.  That leads me to believe that the large engine series has a different part for 1939 and I would presume for 1940.  To eliminate doubt, I would go to your chassis manual, which is not with me at the moment, and verify.  If you don't have that manual, it would be a great purchase.

 

I also discovered that Bob's is a difficult site for conducting searches.

The Shop Manual may not help.  I ALWAYS advise that the Master Chassis Parts Manual is the only real source of correct information in these matters.  The best one would probably be 1928-1947 for interchangeability, but I think on these parts you could likely go up to a 1953 Master Parts Book or even later.  This setup with used through 1952, so with the later book you get to see all of the interchanges that work.  One word of caution is that the later the book, the more likely that the part was no longer available at that time.  This situation is more likely with a Master Body Parts book though.  Because of WWII and Korea most of the mechanical parts remained available for many years.  Also, old Buick dealers told me that they were not allowed to return parts until 1955 and then they could not return parts already in stock.  So, in the 1970s it was a bonaza to clean out the attics of  old long-established Buick dealers.  I was there doing it at the time.

Edited September 8, 2017 by Dynaflash8 (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

Earl is 100% right. Big cars are different than the small series cars. I've sort of been looking for a large series U-joint for a while just in case I have to go into the torque tube of the Limited (it's semi-permanently laid up because I let someone talk me into taking the rear end apart and I accidentally dropped one of the bearing caps and broke it). Finding small series U-joints is easy, but I have yet to find a large series pert. I'm hoping that it can be cross-referenced, but I don't even have one that I can put in my hands for measurements without taking a car apart. There surely has to be something out there that isn't so difficult to find, right?

[Cronjie]

Thanks for the info. I talked to several suppliers and found that the 320 engines had a bigger sized joint.  Ahhh, the impossible just takes longer.