The making of a homemade u joint and installing the rear transmission

As you can see in the first photo this is the old worn out u joint my father made.  It was made of many layers of canvass.  Being that the back La Salle transmisson bolts directly to the rear end there needed to be some kind of flex joint and that was what my Dad came up with.  It lasted 71 years.  Not bad!  So, I decided to make a new one out of 2, 1/4 inch thick rubber pads and a thick layered buffing pad in the center.  I then made 2 wooden templates with holes drilled for bolts, screwed all together, then trimmed it on my bandsaw.  I then removed the wood templates.  Now my new u joint (looking like a huge ice cream sandwich) was ready to be installed.

             Next using the chain hoist I installed the rear transmission with the new u joint and then bolted up the two cross members that hold the transmission in the frame.  Now onto the front transmission.



                                                                                                                

Installing rear cross brace and cleaning up rear transmisson

I painted and reinstalled the rear brace with four brackets to hold up the front of the La Salle rear end.  Next was to power wash (3 times ) the rear transmission ,also a LaSalle 3 speed.  Then wire brush with a electric hand grinder all nooks and crannies till clean ready for paint.  But before painting, I had to pull off the top of the trans and figure out why it woudn't shift.  Not sure what I did besides realigning and moving a few gears around then putting in some new gear oil, but its shifting like a new corvette now.        

 Next , painted the transmission red to match the rear end.