Driveshaft rebuilt - Not a happy bunny

[dickspanner]

This may sound like a stupid question, and hell knows I have asked many of them before but here goes:-

I decided to rebild my driveshafts before I stick em back on crewcab, so I purchased 4 new cv joints and 4 new boot kits.

Striped the said items, cleaned em up and assembled new cv joints.

Driveshaft 1.

CV joints nice and tight, aided on with soft mallet and socket over shaft etc, bottomed it out at base of splines. Noticed the kit came with a dished washer which under no circumstance would allow the split washer to be installed if it was fitted. So I put the split washer on its own and there is a 1/2mm gap between CV joint and split washer on both sides of shaft.

Drive shaft 2

Same clean up except sprung washer would fit on one side but not the other and the CV joint was not as snug a fit, the CV joints slid on without effort.

I did not like the assembly senario, does this sound normal to have one a tight fit, the other a easy fit and edge distances between joint and retension spring washers different.

I am going to be driving cosworth power through these assemblies and don't want problems?

Anybody any similar stories on assembling driveshaft or should I look at sourcing new drive shafts?

Dickspanner

[Simon Baxter]

The kits contain a load of bits.
The kits also fit a few other vehicles.
There is enough bits in the kits to cover all models that the joint was fitted to.
If you were paying attention when you stripped them you would notice that the dished washes weren't fitted.

So, they don't need to go back on.

It's also fairly common for 2WD's to be p!ss slack on the splines, syncros however more times than not need to be pressed off, and can be a right tw@.

[dickspanner]

Simon,

Cheers for that, I did not want to mention that the washers were not originally fitted for fear of someone saying they were not needed just due to the fact that there were none there before hand etc. I wanted to check that the kit was not a later mod added to the assembly etc.

I will take the other washer off and will now fit the shafts to the crewwy with a little less concern.

Cheers for the advice, I was even contemplating assemliung them with solid locktight instead of medium stuff to be on the safeside, but this would basically remove the option of dismantling them in the future.

It is now getting to the point of all the modifications have been completed and all the conversion is just ready for assembly. Hoping to get it off the ramp this week sometime so I can start on the floor jobs instead of cranking my neck all the time working under the tub. I have one more question but will post another topic on that one instead of lashing it to this topic.

Cheers for advice.

Dickspanner

[Simon Baxter]

I have seena few syncros snap the end of the shaft off but I've never seen one pull the teeth, but none of those were putting 200hp though them, mind you it is a ford engine so if we work on the duty cycle theory that it will only be running for 50% of the time then than brings it down to normal...

[dickspanner]

Ouch, thats a bit harsh.

The engine is brand new after a full rebuild, I am more worried about the gearbox failing than the CV joints shearing.

We shall see, the shafts will hopefully go on tonight.

Dickspanner