Cardan shaft u/j removal

[ndevans]

Those are what came with the u/j, and are actually shorter than the ones on the joints I took off. It wouldn't make much difference anyway, the angle of the grease nipple is such that it completely misses the recess in the yoke.

[Bill_qaz]

It looked in your picture that this was the foul point,hence my comment.

Screenshot_20250819-102705_Samsung Internet.jpg (118.58 KiB) Viewed 4718 times

[ndevans]

It is, but the grease nipple would have to protrude no longer than the base of the hexagon above the surface of the joint. Might work if suitable grease nipples are available to fit the thread, but those are the grease nipples that came with the joints, so as supplied they are unusable in a Minor.

[Bill_qaz]

Yes you can get them so the hex sits against the casting either straight or angled,

EDIT
SEEMS VARIOUS THREADS DEPENDING ON MAKE SO COULD ALSO BE UNF OR METRIC

[ndevans]

Good to know, I'm not buying a box of 90 but I'll keep my eye out for the odd one or two at auto jumbles!
You'd think they'd supply small ones with the joints.

[ndevans]

These are the boxes they came in.

IMG_20250819_085103082.jpg (1.28 MiB) Viewed 4691 times

The two on the right are the two I ordered on Friday. One of these is on the front joint-they seem to fit the gearbox yoke better (the other suffered a damaged bearing cup when a couple of rollers got dislodged and trapped at the base of the cup).

The three on the left were my spares (two of which I didn't know I had until I had ordered the new ones!) Two of those are identical to the ones ordered last week, the third is the one with the grease nipple angled a bit lower which fits nicely into the recess on the yoke. This is now on the diff end of the shaft.

All are marked RGUJ115, MGB/Midget, and came from ESM. Credit to them, they have been very helpful, even offering to send me a replacement foc.

[Bill_qaz]

Deleted see previous edit

[svenedin]

These are the boxes they came in.

IMG_20250819_085103082.jpg

The two on the right are the two I ordered on Friday. One of these is on the front joint-they seem to fit the gearbox yoke better (the other suffered a damaged bearing cup when a couple of rollers got dislodged and trapped at the base of the cup).

The three on the left were my spares (two of which I didn't know I had until I had ordered the new ones!) Two of those are identical to the ones ordered last week, the third is the one with the grease nipple angled a bit lower which fits nicely into the recess on the yoke. This is now on the diff end of the shaft.

All are marked RGUJ115, MGB/Midget, and came from ESM. Credit to them, they have been very helpful, even offering to send me a replacement foc.

Are they branded “Powertune”? I found their wheel bearings to be complete rubbish and swiftly removed them and replaced with new old stock originals. I think the original UJs were Hardy Spicer HS194 so you may be able to find an equivalent of better quality than what you have. The fact they don’t seem to be lasting very long seems odd.

Stephen

[Bill_qaz]

A quick search on fleabay show two for minors with short grease nipples and one with the long greaser you have listed for early mm

Screenshot_20250819-162602_eBay.jpg (109.18 KiB) Viewed 4654 times

Screenshot_20250819-162449_eBay.jpg (79.34 KiB) Viewed 4654 times

Screenshot_20250819-162339_eBay.jpg (133.44 KiB) Viewed 4654 times

[svenedin]

Here is a Hardy Spicer HS194 equivalent (high quality) with a very short grease nipple

https://www.eabs.co.uk/product/classic- ... or-details

Or another from Moss Motors:

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/en-gb/uni ... ble-guj115

As you can see there are a huge number of different part numbers: https://mgaguru.com/mgtech/propshaft/ps103.htm

Here is an old thread with a discussion about the grease nipples on the propeller shaft journals: viewtopic.php?t=75522

Stephen

[ndevans]

I discovered a problem with the short grease nipple this evening. In preparation for refitting the cardan shaft to the car, I attempted to grease the joints. The medium length one on the gearbox end does not have enough clearance to the adjacent yoke to allow the grease gun to attach properly and deliver grease in the right place. I had to replace the grease nipple with a long one to get the grease gun to fit. There still seems to be enough movement in the joint, so I left it on. At the other end I could only get the grease gun on the short grease nipple with the joint at an angle. Whether I'll be able to manage that with it on the car remains to be seen, but I think that a short grease nipple might not work because again it might be difficult to get the grease gun to engage properly.

On the plus side, I took it for a short run and it is definitely quieter at speed now, so the pain has been worth it!

[Mervin]

I tried using those Powertrain items, from ESM, I think. Fitted alright, but the joints were virtually unmoveable. I tried thinner circlips, to reduce the preload, without success.
I was lucky enough to find two genuine Hardy Spicer UJs which fitted perfectly and are now in service since last year.
No doubt I should have contacted ESM, they are excellent with after sales service, but didn't.
"CAUTION : the new UJs must be fitted the correct way round - if fitted the wrong way round there is no space to put a grease-gun on the grease-nipple, so the new UJs cannot be greased at regular intervals and will wear out quickly. The new front UJ must be fitted with the grease-nipple facing towards the front of the propshaft, and similarly the new rear UJ must be fitted with the grease-nipple facing towards the front of the propshaft. (older UJs overcame this problem by using long grease nipples) Study the available spaces to understand what this means before starting any reassembly with the new UJs."
I found the above online.

[svenedin]

I tried using those Powertrain items, from ESM, I think. Fitted alright, but the joints were virtually unmoveable. I tried thinner circlips, to reduce the preload, without success.
I was lucky enough to find two genuine Hardy Spicer UJs which fitted perfectly and are now in service since last year.
No doubt I should have contacted ESM, they are excellent with after sales service, but didn't.
"CAUTION : the new UJs must be fitted the correct way round - if fitted the wrong way round there is no space to put a grease-gun on the grease-nipple, so the new UJs cannot be greased at regular intervals and will wear out quickly. The new front UJ must be fitted with the grease-nipple facing towards the front of the propshaft, and similarly the new rear UJ must be fitted with the grease-nipple facing towards the front of the propshaft. (older UJs overcame this problem by using long grease nipples) Study the available spaces to understand what this means before starting any reassembly with the new UJs."
I found the above online.

It is so much better if you can find original parts. They fit first time with no fuss and bother. Unfortunately, it is not usually possible to find such parts "on demand" and the only way to do it is to buy them when seen and keep as stock in the garage. ESM are very helpful in terms of offering refunds or replacement but my experience when parts simply do not fit or are wrong (e.g wiper wheel boxes) is that they claim never to have heard of a problem before and just carry on selling them.

Stephen

[ndevans]

Are they branded “Powertune”? I found their wheel bearings to be complete rubbish and swiftly removed them and replaced with new old stock originals. I think the original UJs were Hardy Spicer HS194 so you may be able to find an equivalent of better quality than what you have. The fact they don’t seem to be lasting very long seems odd.

Stephen

Yes all are Powertrain. All came from ESM, who have been very helpful, they are very good at after-sales.
The old joints had lasted at least 40,000 miles, I have no complaints about them. They were marked GKS and were fitted by the workshop that reconditioned the cardan shaft. They are Bristol based and do work for various organisations including doing cardan shafts for railway locomotives. These are significantly bigger than those on the Morris, which are poxy by comparison!

I guess the thing about U/Js is that they rarely suddenly fail, they just tend to get noisier over time as they wear. You don't always notice the change until it becomes intrusive.

[svenedin]

Are they branded “Powertune”? I found their wheel bearings to be complete rubbish and swiftly removed them and replaced with new old stock originals. I think the original UJs were Hardy Spicer HS194 so you may be able to find an equivalent of better quality than what you have. The fact they don’t seem to be lasting very long seems odd.

Stephen

Yes all are Powertrain. All came from ESM, who have been very helpful, they are very good at after-sales.
The old joints had lasted at least 40,000 miles, I have no complaints about them. They were marked GKS and were fitted by the workshop that reconditioned the cardan shaft. They are Bristol based and do work for various organisations including doing cardan shafts for railway locomotives. These are significantly bigger than those on the Morris, which are poxy by comparison!

I guess the thing about U/Js is that they rarely suddenly fail, they just tend to get noisier over time as they wear. You don't always notice the change until it becomes intrusive.

Actually the HS194 is also used in dumper trucks which must have a very hard life!

Stephen

[Mervin]

I tried using those Powertune items, from ESM, I think. Fitted alright, but the joints were virtually unmoveable. I tried thinner circlips, to reduce the preload, without success.
I was lucky enough to find two genuine Hardy Spicer UJs which fitted perfectly and are now in service since last year.
No doubt I should have contacted ESM, they are excellent with after sales service, but didn't.
"CAUTION : the new UJs must be fitted the correct way round - if fitted the wrong way round there is no space to put a grease-gun on the grease-nipple, so the new UJs cannot be greased at regular intervals and will wear out quickly. The new front UJ must be fitted with the grease-nipple facing towards the front of the propshaft, and similarly the new rear UJ must be fitted with the grease-nipple facing towards the front of the propshaft. (older UJs overcame this problem by using long grease nipples) Study the available spaces to understand what this means before starting any reassembly with the new UJs."
I found the above online.

[Mervin]

I tried using those Powertune items, from ESM, I think. Fitted alright, but the joints were virtually unmoveable. I tried thinner circlips, to reduce the preload, without success.
I was lucky enough to find two genuine Hardy Spicer UJs which fitted perfectly and are now in service since last year.
No doubt I should have contacted ESM, they are excellent with after sales service, but didn't.
"CAUTION : the new UJs must be fitted the correct way round - if fitted the wrong way round there is no space to put a grease-gun on the grease-nipple, so the new UJs cannot be greased at regular intervals and will wear out quickly. The new front UJ must be fitted with the grease-nipple facing towards the front of the propshaft, and similarly the new rear UJ must be fitted with the grease-nipple facing towards the front of the propshaft. (older UJs overcame this problem by using long grease nipples) Study the available spaces to understand what this means before starting any reassembly with the new UJs."
I found the above online.

Sorry I quoted myself in error. Apparently I can't delete my post on this forum. Why? For some reason it's posted twice too.
And yes, I incorrectly wrote Powertrain, should have been Powertune.
I think Stephen is correct - Hardy Spicer HS194. Looks like they're like hen's teeth now.

[geoberni]

Sorry I quoted myself in error. Apparently I can't delete my post on this forum. Why? For some reason it's posted twice too.
And yes, I incorrectly wrote Powertrain, should have been Powertune.
I think Stephen is correct - Hardy Spicer HS194. Looks like they're like hen's teeth now.

What you can do, if within the allowed time, is edit by removing all the content and then just write something like 'Opps double post'..