I just put in new U-joints front and rear. They went in without a problem however the front U joint seems to be "tighter" than the rear. I mean I can take the front yoke and put it at any angle I would like and it'll stay there and it seems to take more force to move it up and down than the rears. I checked while installing to make sure there was no binding and so forth. There is no grinding or noise what so ever from the u-joints. Also the inside clips touch the inside of the yoke so I know I didn't push them in too far and I don't have any room to play with as in trying to back them out....is this normal with new u-joints? Are they supposed to be this stiff? OR did I screw up?

 

my grandfather put new u-joints in my aluminum ds for me and they were not tough to move but were not flopping around either.
so as far as i can tell the new ones are abit "stiff" as you called it..

the u-joints used were new but were sitting in the garage for some time, so maybe mine needed to be broken in again or something like that.