15 replies to this topic

[Mini-Advantage]

Good Morning,

 

I have a 1987 Mini Advantage, and I have purchased complete left and right driveshafts that are assembled with CV joints and Inner POT joints together.

Now I know that the POT joint wont fit through the hole in the subframe (inside engine bay coming out through wheel arch), but the outer CV joint looks like it wont fit either.

 

How do I fit a complete, assembled driveshaft into the subframe? The engine is out of the Mini.

Not in my garage at the moment. 

 

Many thanks,

Neil

 

[nicklouse]

You slide the inner off the drive shaft and fit it to the gearbox.then fit the drive shaft to that.

[Mini-Advantage]

You slide the inner off the drive shaft and fit it to the gearbox.then fit the drive shaft to that.

Brilliant thank you. Should the inner slide off easily by hand? i.e. no C-clips?

Thank you in advance.

 

Neil

[nicklouse]

 

You slide the inner off the drive shaft and fit it to the gearbox.then fit the drive shaft to that.

Brilliant thank you. Should the inner slide off easily by hand? i.e. no C-clips?

Thank you in advance.

 

Neil

 

No. You need a tool. See your manual. Or you can split the inner pot joint.

[Spider]

You can remove the Pot Joint from the shaft with careful use of a big screw driver and a hammer.

While this is obviously fitted to the car, where the Arrow is pointing is the inner of the Pot Joint, if you angle the Screw Driver in to this part of the Pot Joint and give it a sharp tap with a hammer, it should separate.

 

[xrocketengineer]

You might want to secure the driveshaft on a vise before you whack the pot joint. 

[Mini-Advantage]

Thank you for all your replies - A big hammer, vice and cold chisel did the trick. :)

[WhRob]

Sorry to hijack with a question of my own but I've just been working on my front hub (92 Mayfair) and after undoing the top ball joint the drive shaft came away from the car. The crown on the driveshaft came out of the pot (all balls still in place).
Can I just slide it back into the pot or is there something else I need to do?

[Spider]

Sorry to hijack with a question of my own but I've just been working on my front hub (92 Mayfair) and after undoing the top ball joint the drive shaft came away from the car. The crown on the driveshaft came out of the pot (all balls still in place).
Can I just slide it back into the pot or is there something else I need to do?

 

There is a C Clip that holds them in. It is possible that it may not have been clip in all the way or I'd say the clip is missing or broken. Best have a look as see if the clip is there first. New Clips are available, however, if you need to replace it I'd suggest first squashing it up tighter to start with, then only spread it just far enough to slide it over the splines to get it on and no more. If they are any bigger, they don't side down in the groove properly. When that happens, they usually stop you getting it in and if you do manage, it usually means they are very hard / extremely to get apart as the Clip will jam in the splines and you need to keep belting hard to shear the wire.

 

On assembling, I usually pave the lower ball joint pin in the arm, line the spline up in the Pot Joint, then push in while turning the disc, this lines up the splines, you'll feel it when it does, then give it a good shove and it should go in, keep going until you feel it come to a hard stop, then get the top ball joint pin in. It's not a bad idea at this point to have a look and be sure the shoulder on the drive shaft is hard up against the inner of the Pot Joint.

[WhRob]

Thanks for the reply, it's really helpful about refitting. I'm a bit confused about the C clip, where should I be looking for that? Does it keep the crown in the pot?

[nicklouse]

Thanks for the reply, it's really helpful about refitting. I'm a bit confused about the C clip, where should I be looking for that? Does it keep the crown in the pot?

The C clip holds the Put into the gearbox. It sounds like you have just popped the rubber off. Make sure it is all clean and greased. And put it all back together. Really you should make sure they all go back where they came from.

[Spider]

Thanks for the reply, it's really helpful about refitting. I'm a bit confused about the C clip, where should I be looking for that? Does it keep the crown in the pot?

 

Does this help ?
 

 

[WhRob]

Thanks, looking at that diagram it's not the c clip as the crown is still attached to the shaft, but has slid out from the pot. Hopefully I've attached a picture which shows what I'm looking at

 IMG-20220425-WA0002.jpg   39.36K   5 downloads

[GraemeC]

Clean it up, re-grease and put it back in.  Ideally the balls would go back into the same slots in the cup, but you're past that and it is unlikely to cause too much grief.

 

It looks like the boot was attached with a cable tie - I prefer to use a proper metal strap that can usually be installed a bit tighter, but a cable tie is usually sufficient to stop the boot coming adrift in normal service.

[Spider]

Ah, OK !

 

There's nothing that holds that in other than the boot.