C3 NCRS judging points

[John D.]

I am thinking of relacing the u-joints on my car. All 6 they are 34 years old. Seems to me that using greasable u-joints would be a good idea, but I understand points are subtracted if I don't use non greasable like original. How big of a hit will I take during judging if I use the style with grease fittings?

Thanks in advance

[Larry Barickman]

Re: C3 NCRS judging points

Greasable U-joint are not as strong and this is very important on the half shaft joints. Use only Spicer non-greasable u-joints. Lots of failures with any other brand/type.

[Jack H.]

Re: C3 NCRS judging points

Larry's right about drive line U-joints! A friend with his 700 HP, BB, Nova discovered this at the drag strip when the drive shaft let go and the car 'pogo sticked' testing the driver safety equipment.... But, for a docile driver car environment, there isn't much impact from substituting zerk based joints.

As far as what the scoring impact would be, absent any specific text in the applicable TIM&JG book for the year of your car which might focus and address this subject, the standard NCRS guidline for judging applies. This breaks the item into a five discrete axis 'universe' from the standpoint of Finish, Installation, Date, Configuration and Completeness.

The presense of zirc grease fittings on a u-joint where factory originals were known not to have used them, violates the Configuration axis. Therefore, judges should take the available Originality points for the line item and deduct 20% for the item failing one of the five axis/tests.

[Larry Barickman]

Re: C3 NCRS judging points

There was a long thread on Corvette forum about failures. Several new Brute Force joints with zerks broke on half shaft applications. The Heavy duty Spicers are the ones without grease zerks.

[John D.]

Re: C3 NCRS judging points

Larry:

Are those HD U-joints the Spicer "Life" series I read about in a previous thread?

Thanks, John,

[John D.]

Re: C3 NCRS judging points

Jack:

At the risk of sounding ignorant, What does the 20% equate to in points. I understood there are a total of up to 4500 points available when a car (68) is judged. If you were judging my car and you found the 6 u-joints with zerks what # of points would you deduct?

Thanks, John

[Larry Barickman]

Re: C3 NCRS judging points

I really don't know what they call them. They are the correct replacement part listed by Spicer. Napa also has a very good U-joint and their h.d. one is aslo the one without zerks.

[Jack H.]

Now the question can be answered!

You put the number '68' in parenthesis in this portion of the thread, I'll presume that means the car is a 1968 Corvette.... You see, points for a given item change based on what year we're talking about and that's up to the cognizant National Team Leader. Altogether the points add to 4500 for all Corvettes, but as the cars become more complex over time, there's more individual items to judge so, point allocation has to change to accommodate the specifics of each model/year....

[John D.]

So Jack how many points do I lose due to zerks?? *NM*

[Jack H.]

Back....

Had to duck in/out to remember what the component was we were talking about....
It's u-joints and I'm going to presume you're specifically pointint to the driveshaft u-joints.

The current version of the '68-72 Flight Score Sheet allocated 2 Originality and 2 Condition points to the driveshaft and u-joints under Section 8, Chassis. Of course, the driveshaft is the larger item so how to allocate falls upon the individual judges. But, some might look at it this way.

The driveshaft (singular) and u-joints (plural) are called out together and deserve equal importance. This would put one of the originality points on the driveshaft and another on the u-joints. The deduction would be VERY small, along the lines of 1/5 * 1 pt * 2 items = 2/5th point. Since judges may NOT deduct fractions of a point, they're forced to round up to one or round down to zero (simply a comment without deduction on the score sheet).

[John D.]

Thanks Jack!! *NM*