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Drive shaft change

mojobaby

mojobaby

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About 3 months ago, my driveshafts on my GTL started making a racket so I ordered a new set from Oscaro in France. Great price and free delivery at that stage.

Then for some reason, the noise went away which made me very happy!

Yesterday the noise came back, even worse than before so I realised that I had to change them immediately.

It's the first time that I've done the job, but I was quite confident because of posts on this forum and also watching some Youtube videos helped a lot.

It took me the whole day to do just one side and that was because of those damn Nylock nuts on the ball joints. They caused the ball joint bolts to turn and turn even though I put a lot of pressure on them to stop them spinning.
I wondering if an impact wrench/drill would work better.
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Eventually I had to cut the nut off the tie rod end. Lucky I had a spare which I had bought for my 850cc
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I even broke my special tool to remove ball joints and bought a more expensive one and better one because it has thinner arms which fit easier into the ball joint.
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Wire brush then run a spare nut up the exposed thread before attempt to undo it this should clear the threads giving you best chance of undoing nyloc nuts
Next trick involves using heat from blowtorch until nylon melts and runs out followed by a shot of oil on hot threads
Of course i do have an air impact wrench as well
 
The problem of rotating ball joints is present even when they are new and you are trying to fit them... tried with a normal nut just to block them in their housing but their thread is usual different and I ruined the end of the thred (had to work a bit with a file to have them working properly ).
Played a bit with clamps and pullers but no result, hope that with the wheel on the ground I will reach some better result.
 
Replacing the actual drive shaft took me 5 minutes. Removing ball joints nuts took 4 hours. Tightening the nuts was just as bad. Hope today goes better!
 
Geoff, the tie rod ball joint was still attached to the stub axle carrier, so I couldn't unscrew the arm. i'm wondering if all 3 ball joints have to be removed before fitting the drive shaft. Perhaps the tie rod ball joint can be left as is and just remove the other two?
I'll try because I'm just about ready to start.

my knees and back are wrecked from yesterday
 
Depending on the Year of the car it would have been possible to take the Bolt out of the Inner end of the track rod end on a pre 1979 car after 79 you could of unscrew the track rod end from the steering arm to save struggling with it if it has got disc brakes you can take the caliper off and just undo top ball joint and the Hub will just swing down far enough if you push on the shaft in woods at a certain position to remove without disturbing lower ball joint if you have got drum brakes it becomes more difficult as the flexible brake hose. You getting the angle you need
I could be making all of this up of course

Edit apologize for punctuation as dictated on my phone whilst parked in a lay-by stopped to answer a phone call
 
OK, I now understand what Geoff was talking about. There is no bolt at the inner end because its a 1980 GTL. The bolt was on the earlier model and that would have made life easier- I could have left the ball joint in place.

Today went a lot easier. I wire brushed the threads and sprayed with oil. I undid all the bolts with the wheel on the ground then put them back on before I jacked the car up.

After the drive shaft was in, I only had a problem with the lower ball joint spinning. Using a piece of wood as a lever I lifted the brake drum and that stopped the ball joint from spinning while I tightened the nut.

Now I have a further problem. My wheel alignment is out. When I removed the tie rod ends I counted the turns and counted the turns again when I put the new ones in. Can I align the wheels using a flat piece of wood from the back wheels to the front wheels?
 
Ah but yet again the wonderful quality of pattern parts means counting threads doesn't work any more as there may be difference in overall length did you compare parts
 
I know that the ball joint itself is smaller on the new part, but as the wheels are "toe out" I can only imagine that the threaded bar must be longer. Guess there's only one way to find out.
looks like I'm learning the hard way
 
There are many different sizes when it coms to tie rods. I do usually count the number of threads that are visible when the tie rod is still in situ.
 
Except even with that theory if the thread starts closer to the joint itself it's still not correct
I could try charging per post on here
My count is still going up
right who owes me the most money lol.
 
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If you measure between the inside of the nut and the dead centre of the round part of the track rod end (once before removal and again after replacement), you should be pretty close. Not very scientific, but it works for me. Always a good idea to check the tracking/have the tracking checked afterwards, though.
 
I've nearly typed all that out myself but thought I better limit my advice 2 post less than 4 a day
 
Thanks Andy, that's a logical way of ensuring an accurate fit. However I didn't think it completely necessary because of the following photo. The important measurements are identical.

Today I took them out again and followed your method and both sides needed an extra 2 turns each.

I checked the wheel alignment with a flat straight bar from back wheel to front wheel and its pretty spot on now. Much better than before, but I will take the car in for a proper wheel alignment test next week.
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One of the times I'm glad my cars are earlier models. Much easier to set the alignment than taking a ball joint apart all the time!
Sorry for the misdirection - didn't know about the difference in tie-rod adjustment.

Another day, another thing learned....
 
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