Drive Shaft Rebuild

During a test drive I noticed a knocking sound from underneath the car. Sounded like a bad U-joint initially but was a bit loud. I thought if I'm going to replace a U-Joint I might as well rebuild the entire drive shaft with new flex disc and centre support bearing.

Removing the drive shaft wasn't difficult. I probably spent most of the day getting the car supported properly. I didn't even remove the hand brake mechanism. I just took off the springs and slipped the drive shaft down and out the front of the car.

When I separated the rear section of the drive shaft from the differential yoke I found that oil had accumulated inside. This apparently is a common problem with Spiders. The fix appears to just put some sealant in that area.





Removing the U-Joint yoke on the forward section of the drive shaft (in order to remove the centre support bearing) was a bit tricky. I really tried to figure out how I could do this without additional apparatus but I ended up having to bolt the flex disc spider on a piece of wood and then place the wood under the tire of the car in order to get enough torque on the nut without the shaft turning. The manual states to torque it down to 87 ft.lbs.

Once removed a gear puller made short work of taking off the yoke but the centre support bearing put up a good fight. There was quite a bit of corrosion on the shaft.

To install the new centre support bearing I found that a 24mm deep drive socket fit perfectly over the metal collar of the bushing, allowing me to hammer it down.

Using the same technique to remove the yoke nut, I torqued it down under the tire of the car.

I decided to replace the gearbox mount after seeing the bad rubber from underneath. I supported the gearbox using a floor jack, took the nuts off the bracket and then let the jack down a little to get enough clearance around the mounting studs. You have to be careful doing this because there is no rear engine mount. So if you let the gearbox drop too far you will hit the cylinder head against the bulk head. - not good.

Upon inspection of the mount I noticed it was really bad. The rubber had almost completely split. Same was the case with the flex disc/guibo/thing. It was lucky I decided to rebuild the drive shaft otherwise I wouldn't have seen how bad it was.

When I started to install the new mount I noticed that it was too tall. Not sure what's going on here. Need to do more research. UPDATE: The mount I purchased was from AutoRicambi and I am told it is custom made to be a one-size fits all part. Given the later cars did indeed use a taller mount this must be the reason for the compromise. Both Vick's and InternationlAuto list what looks like the correct part so I will likely buy one from them instead.

While there I noticed an oily mess just overhead from what looks like the shift lever socket cover. There also appears to be missing bolt/stud? on the top right of the housing. That's a bit worrying. UPDATE: This missing item is actually a reverse gear lock out stud. It prevents the driver from accidentally selecting Reverse gear.