I suck at U joints

I just installed a new rear-most u joint yesterday (moog 270). Well, I guess I'm an idiot because I really struggled, it just wouldn't install the same as the center joint I did last week. But i ended up with one cap that is loose inside the yoke...I must have been forcing it in crooked with the ball joint press because it was tough to squeeze together, and then it POPPED. Some spiky metal shavings came out, so I cleared those out of the retainer groove. After that it was loose and no longer a slight interference like the others. Everything went together and it seems to drive fine, but I probably just screwed up my yoke didn't I?

 

Probably messed up the pins inside the cap of the ujoint. I wouldnt use anything other than spicer 1330 though. Thats OEM. Could be a bad ujoint as well.

$25 Spicer 5-1330X U-Joint Kit 1330/SPL25 Series (OSR)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DOI9GFK?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

edit: Looked at your post better you def messed it up. Those pins are supposed to all be in there. That is how the ujoint moves. If you remove any of them then it will be loose and not work right.

 

lots of times you will get a needle from the needle bearing inside the cap drop and make it to where you cant press things together. Might want to get another u joint and put it back together. Caps should not move in the yoke.

 

see edit above

 

None of the pins are misplaced because everything squeezed together just fine, retainer clips installed just fine. Metal shavings were from plowing through that yoke ID crooked. Material was removed from the yoke i was pushing it into. I think the "pop" was when the cap finally straightened out. You might be asking how it could even go in crooked and thats because I was stupidly pressing against the opposing end of the joint, without its cap installed. And as I type this out I realize its because I didn't have the truck in neutral which would have helped align things ever so slightly, and I wouldn't have installed it in such a stupid way. I don't know why I didn't just push it all together at once.

So anyway, its not a terribly loose fit but i'm concerned the cap could spin inside the yoke over time and wear the yoke out to the point I need a new driveshaft. The interference fit between the bearing cap outside diameter, and yoke inside diameter is gone. Anyway, isn't it fun causing re-work or making things worse when you were trying to fix it? lmfao