Technical Wonky Driveshaft

[nitro_warrior]

I replaced all the sections of my exhaust at the weekend. After that I was greeted to a new clonk noise. Only when moving and generally when moving off or changing speed.

I was expecting it to be rubbing on the 4x4 prop-shaft or for the gear linkages to be hitting the new exhaust but they all seemed clear. It was only when I put the car on axle stands so I could put it in gear with the wheels spinning did I discover the NS drive-shaft has a wobble.

It seems odd I didn't notice the problem with the old exhaust but then it was quite noisy with a hole in it, and the car has developed a slight vibration at motorway speed.

Here's a video. Anyone experienced this before, I assume it's not doing it because the suspension is fully extended? What horrors am I likely to face? Is it likely to be just the driveshaft or will the diff internals be bust too?

And are 2wd and 4wd drive shafts the same?

Thanks

 

[nitro_warrior]

Just been studying ePER and at least it seems the 2wd and 4wd shafts are the same.

 

[JamieK]

Are you sure it's the drive shaft that's bent? Looking at your video it looks like the problem might be the joint where the drive shaft joins the input shaft. That looks to be where all the movement is. Maybe take the inner boot off and have a look.

 

[nitro_warrior]

Are you sure it's the drive shaft that's bent? Looking at your video it looks like the problem might be the joint where the drive shaft joins the input shaft. That looks to be where all the movement is. Maybe take the inner boot off and have a look.

I'm hoping that it's something not too serious like the driveshaft thats bent or damaged because otherwise it's the going to be a gearbox strip
But I agree it looks like something internal.

 

[JamieK]

There are people on here with far greater knowledge than me but if it's just the drive shaft to input shaft joint then shouldn't be anything internal. Hopefully

 

[nitro_warrior]

There are people on here with far greater knowledge than me but if it's just the drive shaft to input shaft joint then shouldn't be anything internal. Hopefully

Thanks for the encouragement. Been looking at ePER again and I expect it is the CV spider that something is up with. The chunk of steel the CV mates to internally is pretty sizeable so fingers crossed that's all ok.

The ball joint is fecked too so at least I can do that at the same time...

 

[firstcar-Y10]

Looks like the tripod spider's disintegrating. Did that on mine. If it is then get it out of there pretty quick, firstly the box will be full of needle bearings and second it is perfectly possible for the exposed end to gouge itself a groove around the edge of the diff so even a new spider slips. That's what happened to Scruffbags box and it's not pretty.

 

[nitro_warrior]

Looks like the tripod spider's disintegrating. Did that on mine. If it is then get it out of there pretty quick, firstly the box will be full of needle bearings and second it is perfectly possible for the exposed end to gouge itself a groove around the edge of the diff so even a new spider slips. That's what happened to Scruffbags box and it's not pretty.

Hmm cheers for that. This what I'm concerned about, think I've been driving about like this for a while, so not at all convinced I have caught it early, whatever it is...

 

[Bartpanda]

It is not that bad, I had it done 4 or 5 times with my old fiat 127mk1 with lancia 1.0 fire engine. I was racing it a bit and there were problems with shafts from lancia{ one was a bit to short for 127mk1, and on the "jumps" or rough roads when rallying,the tripod spider's disintegrated few times. Most of the needle bearings landed safely in the rubber boot. After four or five tripod failures the gearbox was still ok.

 

[nitro_warrior]

Hopefully going to get a chance to look at it on Thursday. I'll take my camera and let you know what I find. I was sure I had a spare drive shaft and spiders, but I may have used them already. Will need to have a hunt.

 

[nitro_warrior]

Well managed to take the drive shaft off today. I was surprised to see everything intact and no damage. So is the wobble an effect of the CV joint operating at an extreme angle when the wheel is off the ground?

I guess i'll just rebuild it. I'll clean the parts up which are all a bit rusty and fit my new ball joint so all is not wasted. Then I'll try running it with the suspension compressed.

Here are some pictures.

 

[ConorB]

Morning

Not sure about the wobble, but have you checked over the exhaust that you recently put on to see if it's able to knock on something else? This would happen as you accelerate/decelerate/change direction as you said it was.

One of the many knocks that I've experienced on my little panda was after changing an exhaust mount - I'd used a bit of a rubber mount that I had kicking around, took me a while to notice the knock and so didn't think it was that straight away, I was busy thinking it was like knocking noises from other problems.

If it is, then it's a simple fix. If it's not, then sorry for thinking you may have overlooked it!

Have fun

Conor

 

[nitro_warrior]

Morning

Not sure about the wobble, but have you checked over the exhaust that you recently put on to see if it's able to knock on something else? This would happen as you accelerate/decelerate/change direction as you said it was.

One of the many knocks that I've experienced on my little panda was after changing an exhaust mount - I'd used a bit of a rubber mount that I had kicking around, took me a while to notice the knock and so didn't think it was that straight away, I was busy thinking it was like knocking noises from other problems.

If it is, then it's a simple fix. If it's not, then sorry for thinking you may have overlooked it!

Have fun

Conor

Thanks Conor. There are a few things that are really close to the exhaust, the gear linkage, and prop-shaft but they also seem free. I should probably boost the idle speed because the engine sometimes resonates on the engine mounts.
I'm sure the drive shaft is unrelated to the rattle issue but it just didn't look right. Doesn't make any sense that it should cause the new exhaust to rattle.