drive shaft saga

HI ALL,hope someone out there can HELP a newbie. my mk1cabrio autohad a broken o/s/f inner cv joint,to remove the shaft i had to split the bottom ball joint.I checked the new joint against the old one and happily fitted it to the shaft and the shaft back to the car.now i cant get the ball joint to line up with the hole, almost as though the shaft has stretched.
Please help with advice or a good mechanic in N/E London as im going
INSANE
THANKS ALL
GLENN

Wotcha Glen

I had to read this three times to work out what you meant.

I think you're saying that the drive shaft seems too long, because the bearing housing/steering knuckle wont go back on to the bottom ball joint.

I recently replaced the front wheel bearings on my cabrio, but didn't need to replace the bottom ball joint - I just loosened the clamping bolt and pried off the steering knuckle from the bottom ball joint. So I reckon…

If you've taken the drive shaft out, you might want to double check that the drive shaft splines have re-engaged with the hub OK. You didn't say if you'd unbolted the shock absorber from the steering knuckle. If you did this, it might just be that the camber setting is wrong.

How did the new driveshaft compare to the old driveshaft? If they're the same length, it might just be the new one playing hard to get at the differential end. My experience kinda runs out there  :dontknow:

have you sorted it already?

Ali

hi ali. thanks for your reply mate.. im still struggling on.
firstly, im using the old drive shaft with a new inner cv which i checked against the old one for size to make sure it was the right one..it is.
the manual says you can remove the drive shaft by undoing the inner cv bolts….hub nut…trackrod end and turning the hub to the right…no way,so i undid the bottom ball joint and pulled the hub away from the shaft . i changed the inner cv and refitted the shaft but now the bottom ball joint wont line up to go back in.
sorry to ramble on mate…hope you can help…thanks again
glenn

Remove driveshaft from car, replace hub and then refit driveshaft?

That way you can feed the splined drive outer CV bit into the hub?

Hmmmm

You could try loosening the strut top nuts (that bolt it to the wing/car body) and also try standing (yes - you heard me right - with one foot not two though) on the wishbone, while getting a mate to line up the ball joint.

Probably best not to try undoing the wishbone from the car chassis. If you cross-thread the bolts you'll be right in the fertiliser.

I had a look in my haynes manual, and apparently the later driveshafts have a spring in them to damp out vibration, so it may be that the shaft itself is being pushed out by thie spring.

bonne chance


Ali

It sounds like the splines have not lined up properly on the driveshafts either on the hub end or on the gearbox end. I almost done the same thing the other month, I bolted everything back together fitted the ball joint back in and realised the drive shaft had not locted properly on its splines so had to remove it and start again.......