MTFCA Forum

I have a ball cap for a 2 piece drive shaft that has roughly a 1 inch long & 1/2 inch deep missing piece at the large open end. If I cut to square the circumference to the depth of the missing chipped out piece would it effect the use of the ball cap? I hate to scrap it and I’m looking for options for its use.
Best John

Lets see a picture if you want a real, no guess answer. My guess answer would be to weld up the missing chunk.
Cutting more material off a ball joint cant have any advantage.

John: On those ball bearing 4th mains they cut Somme off ball on the DS. Not sure of amount but you should be able to look it up at vendors website. Dan

Dan Hatch wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 20, 2022 1:30 pm

John: On those ball bearing 4th mains they cut Somme off ball on the DS. Not sure of amount but you should be able to look it up at vendors website. Dan

Yes & its butchery.
It removes some of the important surface of a "ball joint". I would never do this. So I would never run the type of ball bearing 4th main that requires it.

The vendors recommend cutting a straight chunk off the end. To minimize the loss it should only be cut @ the bottom @ an angle perpendicular to the frame as the drive shaft sits @ an angle.
These cut D/S balls eventually wear a groove into the new 4th & get sloppy & hammer with each bump the rear axle takes. Some have busted from the hammering, especially the brass units.

In 2010 I bought one of those 4th main ball bearings and when I received it and discovered that I was required to cut off 3/8” of the drive shaft tube ball, I returned it, deciding to stay with the time tested babbited bearing.

I removed the drive plate and sent the babbited 4th bearing along with the drive plate to George King III in Connecticut so he could babbit the bearing and machine the drive plate shaft to fit the babbited bearing. It was definitely the right decision. Jim Patrick