Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi

currently stripping a 67 saloon for resto but cannot remove propshaft from rear axle for love nor money!!!

Engine and gearbox re already out, 4 bolts holding prop to axle are out but damned thing will not move anywhere!

Am I making a simple error somewhere? Any ideas for help please before I resort to rubber headed persuader

Cheers Blaggers

Rubber headed persuader and lots and lots of WD40. Oh, and try not to be underneath it when it eventually lets go - they're a bit heavy and come quite sharp when dropped on you... ;-)

It's a good idea to mark the prop flange before removing, so it goes back as it came off. If you are renewing the hardy spicers, same applies.

A word of warning, do NOT be tempted to hit the offending joint
with anything other than a rubber/copper headed mallet!! Far better to
drive a thin wedge between the offending parts to part them. I have
just had to replace the pinion to propshaft flange on my car because
it was bent! It is a very solid piece of metal but someone had managed
to bash it until it bent. This meant that the car shook to pieces at any
speed above 48MPH. Prise it apart, don't hit it!!

Oh. I thought undoing the bolts. then trying to drive off would be better?

This meant that the car shook to pieces at any
speed above 48MPH.

Depends what you mean by shook to pieces... I managed 40mph with a broken UJ. the propshaft was running out by nearly an inch.
Above 40 I couldn't keep my hands on the wheel, but still made the 40 mile round trip to and from work :-S

I I say 'shook to pieces' then that's what I mean Ray.it was undriveable
and I know from experience, that if the car is driven far with this sort
of vibration,caused by a failed UJ or whatever,you stand a good chance
of actually smashing the tail of the gearbox. This bent unit was from
an 'axle specialist with 30 years experience'

les wrote:It's a good idea to mark the prop flange before removing, so it goes back as it came off.

Can you expand on this les? why?

I'm sure Les won't mind me saying that you should mark the
mated parts of the propshaft U/J's and where it joins to the
differential flange before dismantling, IF IT WAS RUNNING
TRUE, so that,hopefully,when you put it back together it will
still run true. It doesn't take much of a mismatch to give
terrible vibration. It is worth mentioning that, if you suspect
imbalance, you can experiment by using a large Jubilee(hose)
clip round the prop and moving it around, but only after you have
replaced any worn U/J's.

This bent unit was from an 'axle specialist

Wow! You got vibration similar that which I had - I'm a little surprised it was that severe, though I do take your word for it. Was the bent flange easy to spot?

My 40 mile round trip broke a number of things including the engine back plate and the top flange of the bell housing (and unknown to me, it opened out the rear sliding bush in the gearbox)
As I was doing a lot of miles (20K/year) I had to repair the car at the weekend.
I changed the bell housing, back plate and propshaft, but then after a couple of weeks the gearbox damage allowed the next propshaft to run out.
Whick broke the replacement engine back plate and bellhousing.
So then I changed the gearbox, not realising that the 2nd propshaft had now worn off-centre on the front spigot. So the propshaft ran off centre on the next gearbox!!
Bad Vibes!!
So then I tried to cut my losses, and got another propshaft, and fully rebuilt the gearbox (new bearings, bushes etc..) from the broken ones.

But after just 80 miles with the rebuilt box, it was obvoius there was something wrong.
More bad Vibes!!!
So I bought a Montego and abandoned all Morris Minors for >2 years.

When coming back to the Minor eventually, I found that the output shaft was bent (amusing, considering I had canibalised 3 gearboxes to find the good bits). After substituting the main shaft for a straight one it was all OK.
I did find a way to weld the broken back plates (I quickly ran out of good ones)- I added a few strengthening pieces as the welded line would have been a weak spot.

I guess the moral of the story is that the propshaft and gearbox shouldn't be considered seperately, and from your comment, the rear axle is a significant factor too.

Even though it is a good idea to mark the prop flange and yoke before dissembly it is not really necessary.

I worked on propshafts for 5 years and changed thousands of Uj`s and I never marked the flange or yokes. The tolerances in the manufacture of the yokes is less than the accuracy that we could balance to.

If you worry about marking the flanges and yokes you should also ensure the new UJ goes in the same way so the grease nipple is in the same place to maintain balance, but it is not necessary.

What is very important is to ensure the registers on the diff flange and prop flange are clean so they mate perfectly.

Also check the uj caps are a tight fit in the yokes and are not spinning.

Ensure the circlips are the correct thickness so there is no play in the joint.

John

Ok that makes sense - its what I figured would be the deal.

I suppose it boils down to this; If your prop was running ok before the stripdown and you mark the position before dismantling and therefore put it back in the same position you can pretty much be sure of a satisfactory job, if you don't bother to mark it you take a chance.

Ya - Well I don't know how mine was running - cause it never ran while I had it - and now all that area is repainted so I wouldn't have seen a mark (unless I was careful) - but yeah the real reason is I never really thought of it ;)