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Spitfire drive shaft.


aggie

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Hello all, I have a problem with the yoke on one of the driveshafts on my Mk 1 Spitfire in that the hole into which the U/J bearing cap fits has become oversized.  The Workshop Manual says that the shafts are not repairable but I'm betting that someone out there has replaced the yoke on a halfshaft ?  If so does anyone have a spare yoke that they would be willing to sell me ?

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Yes apparently its such a horrible job that its hard to see anyone would have a decent yoke on its own. Theres a recent post on here where someone was very pleased with the shafts they got from Fitchetts after having yokes come loose on some after market replacements... 

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I read about someone having a new driveshaft made for a good yoke. In the US or Canada cause the part from the UK was too costly, would take ages to arrive or similar. But that was done by a professional shop with driveshaft manufacturing experience and very heavy duty tooling and presses!

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  • 1 month later...

Okay, so I have taken your advice and obtained a new halfshaft from TDF, stripped the old one and started to reassemble.  The Workshop Manual says that, once you have fitted the needle roller bearing and oil seal to the bearing housing, to then pass the shaft through the housing and the drift the ballrace onto the shaft and into the housing.  Now, here's my concern :- once you start to drift the race into the housing you will be tending to drive the housing further along the shaft and perhaps damage the needle roller and or oil seal.  Surely it would be better to fit the ballrace into the housing on the bench and then drift the housing onto the shaft.  Your comments please.

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you only need to drift the hsg /bearing on to fit the hub flange the nut will pull it on to the right position 

the back plate holds the brg in place it is free to rotate inside the trunion hsg. you wont damage the seal or needles which ever way you press or drift the shaft through the tight fiiting bearing 

Pete

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I assume we’re talking Spit Herald axle here so remember the axle seal goes on reverse ie so excess grease from the bearing housing is allowed to escape the flicker reducing any mess this reversed seal avoids any excess on future greasing being pushed into the brake assembly area.

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So Pete (Lewis), is what you are saying that I should fit the main ballrace to the trunnion housing on the bench, fit the backplate and outer seal, then place it on the shaft as far as the bearing allows and push it into position by screwing on the wheel hub ?

Thanks Peter for reminder about the inner seal.

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yes thats about what most of  us do   there is a dimension for a drift in the wsm to get the hub on far enough for the nut to fit and take over 

but some simple 'that do' works for me   th shaft is a pretty tight fit in the bearing  there is no shoulder to pull it up to  the whole cornering and suspension loading 

relies on this tight fit   

Pete

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17 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

the whole cornering and suspension loading relies on this tight fit

Well, that and the fact that the bearing isn't really taking any of the cornering loads, as it's fairly loosely located in that axis, so the drive shaft transfers cornering loads to the diff. The weight of the car does go through the bearing but perpendicular to its location on the shaft.

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dont you just love some triumph manuals   

there are a number of jobs they dont tell you and  another where what they tell you is complete tripe 

as you have found out it takes a few years but we all get there in the end 

common sense rules  apply   Ha !!

pleased its all worked out ok

Pete

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