Morris Minor Owners Club

the u/j's on Primrose are shot and thus need replacing (vibration at around 30+mph and usual whineing sound)
so its time to replace them with shiny new ones.

However, i do remember the article in Minor Matters detailed how to do this, but Mother has tidied up and thus it has become lost.

so how do i do it?

will scan minor matters and send you the article in a pm

Can't attach a scanned page via a pm - have sent pm to you

Carefully mark the parts - so they go back in exactly the same orientation. Hope you have GOOD circlip pliers......

Watch how to do it in five minutes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDX17xf9 ... re=related

OK it took six minutes 35 seconds, but you get the drift...

OK it took six minutes 35 seconds, but you get the drift...

I didn't watch the clip but I presume the drift is used for tapping the caps out?

rayofleamington wrote:

OK it took six minutes 35 seconds, but you get the drift...

I didn't watch the clip but I presume the drift is used for tapping the caps out?

well that was an easy enough job, new u/j's all round, parts carefully marked and replaced after marking each part.

even cleaned the entire prop shaft only to discover it was originally painted bmc green. decided not to paint it as i would like to use.

awful faff having to bash out the old roller bearings though

Do they have grease nipples fitted?

I watched that film with incredulity, having just changed my u-joints. I had the same tools, vise, etc. Why do my 5-minute projects always turn into sweatfests that involve at least some blood and broken parts?!

oh yes, i made sure they where of the greasable variety. stupid to go for the none greaseable lot as they will be knackered after a few years.

nothing is ever simple is it.

replaced the u/j's yesterday and today i wanted to go to lincoln christmas market, but on the way there i noticed a heavy vibration, which steadily got worse as speed increased as well, to such a point that the gear stick was vibrating heavily and making a noise.
so i can assume that its the prop shaft.

i marked the bits on each end, so i could reassemble them the same way as they came off, which i have done, however i forgot to mark the ends of the propshaft on their allignment to the gearbox and diff, so after turning the shaft around several times and rebolting it in a different allignment, it hasnt helped.

so any ideas what i have done/can fix it?

Inspect carefully - possibly circlips have come out - joint worked loose?

Turning the propshaft mounting position shouldn't create a problem. As Roy says check the bearing caps again and make sure everything (prop. flanges) is bolted up securely.

well i thought something had come off, so i had the prop shaft off and checked that everything was present and correct. which thankfully it was.

everything has been bolted securely and nothing else is loose.

could the new joints have highlighted another problem that was masked by the old tired joints?

Anything is possible - but you say the problem developed while on the journey... so certainly sounds like something has come loose. Did you refill the gearbox after most of the oil ran out??

something must of come off, but strangely its now sorted its self. so no vibration. all i can assume is that the centrifugal forces acting on the new joins have somehow sorted them selves out. oh well problem all fixed now.

as for the gearbox, yes i topped up the oil as some leaked out with the prop shaft off

Might have been one of the cups pushed too far in, they should be adjusted back up to the circlips. Seems they do that by themselves!

thats what i thought, if its all to far over one direction, the centrifugal force should push everything back up against the cir clips and thus balance itself out.

seems to have done the trick and its all balanced nicely.