Prop shaft fitting

[glenhendry]

As per this thread (http://www.aulro.com/afvb/p38a-range-rover/141971-rattle-diagnosis.html#post1604688), I had a scary noise under the car while it was moving. I determined it was the rear most uni joint on the front prop shaft. I took it off this morning. See this pic (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53625512@N07/6681366871/) and this video for a look at the universal joint. Its pretty mashed. I used 9/16" socket to remove the prop shaft bolts, not 14mm. I did not have to remove the gbox cross member, but I did have to remove the prop shaft itself to get to the rear prop shaft bolts with a 9/16" socket on a long extension. I believe the partially seized UJ at the front caused the rear UJ to get chewed out. So I am driving in 2wd today.

I am trying to install the prop shaft out of my spare parts RR. Two questions:

1) Do I have to put the (male) splined slip yoke into the (female) splined part in any particular way, or does alignment not matter? I didnt take it out, so I didnt get a chance to mark the original alignment in any way.

2) When I cleaned up the splines and attempted to push the splined slip yoke the shaft, it only went an inch and then stopped. How do I push it on further? When the old one came off the car, none of the splines were visible. It looks like it needs to go in another two inches! I dont want to hit it with a hammer for fear of wrecking the good UJs. Do I tap tap tap it in, or does it need to be pressed in? I suspected an air lock, so I removed the grease nipple, but nothing came out upon further pushing.

Thanks!

[glenhendry]

The job is done. In the end the splined yoke was still hard to push into the shaft. I cleaned all the splines well and the prop shaft, regreased and then tapped it in with some timber. Test drive seemed ok, but I havent done highway speeds yet.

[glenhendry]

A final note for installing universal joints. I just spent 30 mins removing and replacing UJ circlips because I thought that they were not perfectly aligned causing the UJ to be slightly stiff. There is a trick. It is the last paragraph of this site: Universal Joint Replacement Sequence (http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/propshaft/ps202.htm)

I quote: "Hold the propshaft in your hand. Strike smartly with the hammer radially on the weld in line with each of the four bearing caps. The shock will move the yoke relative to the spider (due to inertia), pressing the bearing caps outward against the snap rings. Once done the U-joint should move freely on both axis with finger force only. It can be just a little stiff and should not be sloppy loose when new."

This worked perfectly straight away.

[JDNSW]

.....

1) Do I have to put the (male) splined slip yoke into the (female) splined part in any particular way, or does alignment not matter? I didnt take it out, so I didnt get a chance to mark the original alignment in any way.
....

Thanks!

Yes. The universal joint yokes at both ends of the shaft need to be in the same plane. There should be a mark of some kind on the two parts of the splined joint to get the correct alignment. Last one I did had very faint arrows stamped into the metal.

John

[benji]

Glen I did notice that the hardy spicer circlips were different to the ones originally on there, and they're also slightly thicker.

I initially used the hardy spicer circlips but the joint was quite stiff. Puting the old ones back in the joint felt quite good.

Sent from my SM-G900I using AULRO mobile app

[FANTOM P38]

For anyone doing this job there is a special thin walled socket with ext bar available to make undoing & re-tightening uni joint bolts for around $20. I bought mine fom UK when I did same job as they can be very difficult to get a normal socket & extension bar into, specially top bolts. It is also highly recommended to install new bolts with nylocs when replacing uni's.
Hope this helps.