When I completely restored all the mechanical stuff on my 1971 Mk IV Spitfire I
noticed that the holes in the yokes attached to the drive shafts inner ends (
where the Universal Joint Needle bearing cups press in) had at some time in
the past been badly mauled. The cups where loose in the holes rather than a
press fit but as there didn't appear to be any play I hoped they would be OK.
After 3000 miles I noticed a UJ " clonking" sound when there was no torque on
the drive ( like coasting up to a stop light say) and at 4500 miles it was too
bad to ignore. Laying under the car and using a screw driver to lever on the
UJs I could detect a fair amount of play in the bearing cups that where in the
yoke on the drive shaft.... the ones on the yoke on the differential shaft were
OK. I thought that the bearing had gone.... there are poor quality parts about
these days as you know. Anyway when I removed the left hand side shaft ( this
one had the most play) the needle bearing looked OK and there was no wear marks
on the bearing surfaces of the crucifx. But I could see that the bearing cups
had been rotating inside the yoke. So it's apparent that I need either new
yokes or get them sleeved and re-drilled to size. Since there holes have to be
pretty accurately machined and I don't know how much press fit there should be
( maybe 0..002 inch on diameter I would think) I'm not keen on this approach
unless someone knows of a place that has experience doing this. The problem is
that you don't seem to be able to purchase just the yokes... you have to get
the complete drive shaft and , as you know, this means pressing the shaft out
of the hub etc..... and as I did all this doing the restoration it doesn't need
doing.
So my question is has anyone replaced a yoke on a drive shaft? It's a splinned
fit with what looks like a roll pin holding it in place. If this can be done I
can probably pick up some used drive shafts and just use the yokes.
sagreenwood@earthlink.net
Triumph Spiitfire Mk IV, Triumph Stag Mk I
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