RDL Staked U-Joints

Snap rings and staking are the two most common retention methods used to retain bearing cups to the yokes and simultaneously center and align the axes of the shafts.

Staking operations use expensive machinery to center the bearing cups and yokes, and then deform the yokes to secure the bearing cups in position.

Further, it is difficult to securely re-stake a bearing cup in a yoke that has been previously staked due to the already deformed yokes and therefore, most staked universal joint driveshaft’s are not serviced but are replaced.

Snap rings are more commonly used to secure the bearing cups within the yokes in place of staking and allow for ease of serviceability. Rockford Driveline has discovered that many of the driveshaft u-joints & yokes that are staked-in do in fact have either a machined surface on the inside of the yoke ears or the forging was designed with a flat surface that allows us to manufacture u-joints with inside “C” clip style snap ring retainers to fit this area so you can remove the original factory staked-in universal joints and replace them with the 430 Series u-joints saving yourself money to service instead of purchasing new driveshaft’s to fix your vehicle.