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.