Reluctant driveshaft

[Ernie Panks]

Now that my long awaited diff has arrived, and is now installed in the car, I am having a real battle getting the offside driveshaft to fully slide home. It slides onto the splines nicely right up to the point where the driveshaft engages with the diff seal. It is at this point where I cannot persuade it to move any further not even when I talk dirty to it!

Help!

 

[Alex Wong1697456877]

Are you talking about the halfshafts? These are different lengths so make sure you've got them the right way around. I find the offside one is always more stubborn but the joints on it are telescopic and it can be made to fit on with a bit of persuasion. Be careful with the diff oil seal. I pushed one of these slightly off square and it leaked. They are a real pain to change without the right tools from Ford.

 

If you can get the bolts to go from the hub assembly to the de-dion ear then try doing them up bit by bit. When it all comes together, you'll wonder what on earth the difficulty was. I've done this about 6 times this year and sometimes it just goes together, sometimes it takes ages. I'm still not sure why. Getting the bolts to go through the thin plate over the end of the dedion tube is another frustrating bit of the process....

 

Good luck.

 

 

 

Alex Wong

www.alexwong.net

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[Ernie Panks]

Thanks for the advice Alex, yes I am taking about the halfshafts.

I have managed to trace the problem down to a badly ground bearing inner race, something I have only experienced once before in my engineering career, there is a distinct high spot on the race and was only apparent after I rotated the diff.

Caterham say that it is a very rare problem and are going to supply me with another diff and driveshafts that they have trial fitted themselves.

Cheers,

Ernie.