whats the best way off cleaning out the groves especially when damaged was recently changing a uj and some butcher had been at it before normal i try and have a go at it with a dremial to re cut the grove just wanted to know is there a special tool for doing it for whats everyone elses method thanks paul
Paul, That should work OK depending on how bad it was damaged. The only other option I can think of is to replace the part that has the damaged groove. If there is a tool made for this I have not seen one. On larger applications I have re-cut snap ring grooves using a 3 inch cut-off disk in an air grinder.
if you can get the shaft out and into a lathe you can clean them up that way, even weld the damaged area and cut a new groove...if you have to do it in place, a dremel or air grinder will have to do, even a hacksaw blade by hand can clean any burs or fold overs after someone gets done messing it up..
You might try a piston groove cleaner, like this, but measure the shaft diameter, and the groove width, to make sure it is in the range of the tool... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Engine-Pist...:g:5MgAAOxy69JTF3vr&item=222285695361&vxp=mtr
Maybe I mis-read the original post but was thinking by "uj" he was talking about working on a u-joint in a drive shaft for truck. Take a big lathe to swing one of those! Also if it is a drive shaft U-joint snap ring groove I don't think a piston groove cleaner is going to work.
I interpreted it the same way kshansen, he was working on a u-joint snap ring groove. Cut off wheel on a dremel tool is my choice for something like that. My problem now days at 57 yrs old, even with glasses I can't see worth a **** for detail stuff up close. :Banghead
thanks for replies yeah i was talking about a universal joint (hardy spicer) it was on a small daf 55 lorry the man before me hadn't thought it was important to put the snap rings/ cir-clips back in properly and the hold lot had fell apart on the way down the road i always wondered was there a tool that i just didn't know about for cleaning them out and fixing burrs / damage but seems everyone else just does something similar to myself
Yep, air die grinder here, with an assortment of cutoff wheels, even dremel wheels on an adapter for the small places, lol....