23 replies to this topic

[Tomm]

Hello chaps.

I am having some issues dismantling my driveshafts and I am after some information.

I am needing to remove my driveshafts from my hub whilst keeping the car mobile, from my experiences I can not just remove the hub nut and take the shaft out that way as the hub does not stay complete.

Looking at the shaft I have noticed a circlip of some kind around the splines. I can only imagine this is what needs to be removed for the shaft to come out of the hub. Despite what I have tried I just can not get this circlip off.



I've also noticed that the driveshaft has a recess, not far from the hub. Do I need to use some kind of tool which sits in the recess and pushes the hub off of the shaft?

Despite all of my efforts, and I have removed so many driveshaft circlip in the past I've lost count this one has me stumped.

My searches of the forum and google only seem to show removal of the driveshaft from the car but not how to dismantle the shaft down to bare shafts and joints.

Any help would be great, am I right in trying to remove the circlip and remove the shaft this way?

[Dan]

The circlip you see there is just to stop the shaft pushing in too far, don't try to remove it. The shaft is held by a round section clip on the end of it the pops into a groove inside the CV joint. All you need to do is to shock the shaft so that this clip pops past the groove and the shaft will come out of the joint. If the joint is free of the car this is easy, you just hold the shaft and hit the joint with a hammer. In situ it's a little more fiddly but can be done, you need to be pulling on the shaft and keeping tension on it while at the same time shocking the inner part of the joint with a drift and hammer.

[Tomm]

Thank you very much dan! I will try that just now and update.

Thanks

[Tomm]

Thanks Dan!

[Geemax]

Can you buy a replacement for the thick clip at the splines? Mine is broken (actually the pot joint end) Otherwise I was thinking of a blob of weld?

I have tried 2 sources but each time have received a thinner clip (not the inner one)

[ibrooks]

You can - but they aren't a common replacement part as they are rarely removed.

 

I got a pair from a Morris specialist a while back by quoting the part number - the Mini is not the only car that uses them.

 

Iain

[ibrooks]

Then again.......

 

https://www.somerfor...roducts_id=2983

 

Out of Stock

 

http://www.rimmerbro...Item--i-17H8597

 

No Longer available

 

I think I'd be trying these ones

 

http://www.thexpart....---CIRCLIP.aspx

 

Seems that the Netherlands has almost the entire world supply from some quick searching.

[Geemax]

Thanks for the info - ordered from a place in Barnstaple that came up on the xpart site.

[GraemeC]

I didn't think there was a thick clip at the pot joint end - the joint sites against a shoulder (and older ones had an o-ring seal there too)

[Geemax]

Definitely clips - got broken when I had to cut the pot joint off as it wouldn't budge due to corrosion.

[FlyingScot]

Every day a school day I thought it was part of the shaft too...

FS

[tom1]

Hi, can I just confirm that the thick circlip in the first photo is going in to the hub side and not the cv/pot side. I was just about to rebuild mine and have forgot which way round it went. It was some time ago 

[Dan]

You have confused the terms but yes, the flat section circlip is at the outboard end and the sculpted shoulder at the inboard end. In a Mini although a pot joint is actually a CV type joint it is referred to commonly just as a pot joint. The outer joint is referred to as the CV joint. It's historical because Mini was one of the first cars fitted with CV joints but originally had rubber couplings inboard and later on some models had UJs, so the outer one is known as the CV whilst the inner joint is called a pot joint.

[Tomm]

Hi, can I just confirm that the thick circlip in the first photo is going in to the hub side and not the cv/pot side. I was just about to rebuild mine and have forgot which way round it went. It was some time ago 

It is indeed hub end, of you look you can see a dirty red caliper

[tom1]

Thanks , the only thing now is the wife says it's to early, to start knocking ball joints out with my big hammer