Today I took a trip over to CTM Racing to pick up a set of their famous joints for my Dana 44. While I was there owner Jack Graef was kind enough to give me a tour of the shop and show me how his U-joints and axles are made. Just before I got there pro rockcrawler Jeff Mello also showed up to get some parts. I think he said it best, "I feel like Charlie walkin through the chocolate factory." I asked Jack if I could take a few pictures to share the experience with all of you, and he was kind enough to oblige. So here goes, enjoy.

First he showed me how his Dana 60 U-joints were made, as thats what he happened to be working on at the time. Unfortunately he wasn't building caps at the time so I didn't see that process, but since the crosses are the complicated part I was pretty happy.

Heres what it all starts out as, a big chunk of 300m round bar. IIRC the biggest one is for 60 joints, the slightly smaller one is for 44s and the little ones are for axle shafts. I'm not sure I wanna know how much that stack of metal cost. I think that big stuff runs over $600 a foot!



First a disc is cut off the end of that round bar, and small indexing holes are drilled. This allows the joint to be inserted into a fixture on the CNC machine so that its perfectly aligned every time.




Here is what the disc looks like after the first machining step. Starting to look like a joint.......a little.




Once its rough cut it goes into the CNC machine and is cut to near its final dimensions.




Now that its very close to size it goes out to be heat treated and sandblasted.




Heres the machine that does most of this work. Since Jeff was picking up a set of D60 joints Jack showed us how to do the final machine work on the Joints. Jeff got to actually make his own joints. You can see the joint in the middle of the big turret on the left. Those 3 holes index it in place and you just close the door and push the green button and the machine spins it around a bunch of times and the joint comes out all pretty.




For the last bit of finish work the joint needs to be deburred. Heres Jack showin us how its done.





Next I got to see the Dana 44 U-joints. Much of the process is the same, except that they are forged instead of being cut from a billet. Jack had just gotten a shipment back from the forger and had this box of the raw forgings to show me.




Next the joint goes through the same machining stages as the 60 joints. Heres what it looks like after machining. Just needs to be deburred.




All finished, ready to install.




Most people just know CTM for their bullet proof U-Joints, but Jack makes axle shafts as well. Really, really strong axle shafts. He was also working on a few of those when I came in.

The axles start out as a big chunk of round bar as well. Heres the beginning of some front axle yokes being made.

[img]http://www.stinkyfab.com/images/CTM/CTM11.jpg[/img]


Heres one of the front axles he was cutting in the CNC machine partially finished.

[img]http://www.stinkyfab.com/images/CTM/CTM12.jpg[/img]


And heres a front axle shaft in the final stages of machining.

[img]http://www.stinkyfab.com/images/CTM/CTM13.jpg[/img]


Getting to see all this stuff was really cool and I wanna give a big thanks to Jack for taking time out of his day to show me how everything was done. I was planning on just dropping by to pick up some joints and ended up spending over 2 hours there. Thanks again for everything Jack.

Dallas