[Spits] Rear Outer dive shafts ( half shafts in UK speak)

[Stuart Greenwood]

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 at earthlink.net
Triumph Spiitfire Mk IV, Triumph Stag Mk I