Morris Minor Owners Club

so parts ordered from ESM when they opened for business on the 2nd on Jan. Off came the propshaft, four bolts and a good pull to take it off the splines at the front.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
out came the clips with no trouble at all, going rather well..[frame][/frame]
after much careful tapping with a wood malet and frequent checks, the caps started to emerge.

this is the culprit, the lubricating nipple sheared off during the assembly 2010. There was some grease on the needle roller bearings but not enough to stop some wear and tear, they are the originals, so for all I know they could be 40 years old or more.[frame][/frame]
the needles are only held in place by the rubber seal when the cups are out, so the needles start to fall out[frame][/frame]
the brand new spiders are easy to install with the cups out[frame][/frame]
then the clips go in nice and easy.[frame][/frame]

Same thing all over again at the front end of the propshaft, the finally the propshaft goes in after the front and rear spiders have been renewed. I spreyed some wd 40 onto the splines on the male and female connections, just to help it slide into place, I used the jack to hold the rear of the prop shaft up to help me line it up.[frame][/frame]
Four bolts later the prop is in and ready to rotate. While the rear end was up on axle stands I did a quick nip up of the rear suspension bolts, Time for a test drive.[frame][/frame]

Not great, the clonks have gone but as soon as I got above 30mph serious vibration started from the transmission, something not right here, I wonder if I have assembled wrongly somewhere. My main suspicion lies with the prop shaft position on the rear diff, the white painted line had wiped away when I came to reconnect it, what I thought was a trace of white may have been a reflection from the inspection lamp. I know these parts are finely ballanced, the weight is still there, but I may have to re fit to get rid of that unworkable vibration.[frame][/frame]

David
Happy New Year.I'd put a dab of grease over the circlips, making sure the the clips and grooves are well covered.It'll stop the ingress of water and generally prolonging UJ life.Removal of the circlips next time will be a lot easier too.

WD40.... it works and achieved what you wanted it to, re-assembly with your witness marks on the flanges aligned.
Personally I'd have gone with some LM Grease, applied with a wooden lolly stick.It lasts much longer than WD40, which eventually evaporates/ dries up.The splines are designed to " take up " the movement ( both directions ) in the rear suspension on anything other than a perfectly flat road surface.Again a situation of keeping water out and providing lubrication in the splines.UJs usually last a long time, so you don't normally pay the splines in the propshaft, much attention.Some older cars have a grease point on the propshaft.

I've just seen the additional post.You may well have twisted the flanges, in relation to each other.Try a 90 degrees change first and then a 180 degree one, to see if there is any improvement.
Bob

thanks Bob, I'll give that a go, and I'll put some thick grease over those clips. Hope you had a nice Christmas.

Once you get it lined up correctly again I would mark it with a couple of centre punch marks for future reference.

Great pics of the UJs David, Ive never had one of those apart before to know what the internals looked like.

You might also want to get the propshaft balanced by a shop.

George

David mentioned the balancing weight was still attached to the shaft...so, fingers crossed, it's now "just" the orientation.
Bob

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only reason to mark the flanges is because the bolt pattern is rectangular rather than square, so in fact they will only go together two ways, not four. I don't think balance is the issue.

True but it's still a 50/50 shot to get it right without any marks.

When is the vibration? is it during accelaration? Propshaft u/j problems usually show on over-run IE no throttle applied van weight pushing itself forward..
What speed is the vibration & is it through steering wheel or the vehicle body/seats etc?
Is it only SINCE having the propshaft off it's started or was it there before, hence reason for thepropshaft repair?

Iv'e just looked at my van, and It's unlikley it will be a shaft reassembly problem as the shaft uj yokes are fixed even splitting shaft at the splines won't cause a miss alignment of the yokes. TBH I can't see why if possible not being an the flange the right way matters there's nowt in the diff or the gearbox that will affect alighnment.

Are the u/j bearings and spiders in right and no radial play present?

Just thought, check the gearbox rubber mounts. Use a pry bar try to lift gearbox off the rear mounting rail etc to see if the rubber has detached from it's steeel mounting plate, the one that has the studs on it

thanks I'll look at that, I rotated the rear propshaft flanges to allign the four holes in a different phase, still heavy vibration at 30mph, went back, re alligned it again with the earlier phase and during the test drive the vibration only started at 40mph.
I wonder if Ive assembled the uj wrongly, maybe Ive not centred the needle roller bearing cups centally enough. I had no vibration at all before I renewed the UJs. I even had her up to 70mph last year for a few seconds with no vibration. It's only started this weekend with the renewl of the ujs, this stopped the clonking, but Ive got an even more worrying problem now.

When I did my Uj's on the prop, during a classic car restoration course, I was shown how to give the joints a whack with a wooden or rubber mallet.With the joints re-assembled hit the " arms " with a mallet ( not a hammer )directly in line with the
spider.I was told this would "settle" the joints within the cups ( movement of the spider being restricted laterally by the circlips ).The blow was only to "shock" the assembly into it's natural position, so don't go overboard !!
Bob

That is a good point, whack each of the yoke flanges with a copper/hide mallet in turn a couple of times. Whack the outsides so as to shock the bearing cups back out to butt up against the circlips. This will ensure the spider can keep itself central inside the 4 yokes no matter what position the shaft is in in it's 360 deg rotation. Try and get all the cups to sit tight against the circlips.

EG if one cup is not butted agaunst the circlip and the opposite one is then the spider cannot be in the centre it will be on one side of the joint if u see what I mean

I wonder if those long grease nipples are affeecting balance. I would place the front and rear ones 180 degrees appart, so as to distribute their added weight evenly.

I've tapped the arms to let the cups rest against the retaining clips, I'm shortly due to go out and test drive it to see if it's cured the Vibrations. The grease nipple is as you say long, it's pointing forward as you can see here looking from the rear axle on the right. Should I have assembled it with the nipple pointing to the rear I wonder?[frame][/frame]

No as long as it's not rubbing on the yoke if it were forward facing it probably would catch the bolt head.
What I meant was I would have assembled it so as when front nipple was pointing towards right the rear nipple pointed towards the left IE opposite to even out the weight if it mattered.
Were the cups all tight against the circlips or was one or more in too far?

if you look at the clips above, you can see they are not properly seated, I had assembled them incorrectly, when I removed the propshaft I could see a gap, this is caused by the clips creating three mil of movement, no wonder it vibrated above 30mph.[frame][/frame]
The clips should go in the recess shown here. it's wider and allows the clip to expand.[frame][/frame]
With the clip properly installed the cups are positioned correctly hard up against them. There is no free movement sideways now.[frame][/frame]