>From bcr!hpgrla.gr.hp.com!kirkb Thu Feb 14 16:43:39 1991
>Fellow SOL's,
>This weekend I'm planning to replace my '63 Spitfire's
>broken halfshaft. The old one is out/off the car now and after I put in
>a new U-joint, swap wheel cylinders, and set up the brakes on the
>replacement, I'll be ready to bolt everything back together. My Haynes
>manual says that you should mark the flange on the diff and the flange on
>the half-shaft before you take them apart, then line them back up again
>when you put them back together. This seems to make sense, should help
>to keep everything balanced.
>
>But I'll be installing a whole new unit, from the flange that bolts to
>the diff flange to the hub and brake backing plate. Thus I have nothing
>to line back up.
>
>Question:
>Is this a problem? Is there anyway to do this wrong? It looks like the
>orientation of the two flanges will work just fine no matter how I put
>them back together. But I don't want to create any funny vibrations in my
>Spit's rearend. So what are your thoughts on this?
I have never had much, if any, confidence in the thought that
the driveshaft and/or halfshaft assembies of Spits/TRs, etc.
were ever balanced to any great degree by the factory. Given
the age and prior ownership of almost every British sports car,
odds are that at some point, someone replaced the u-joint(s)
and reassembled the driveshaft/halfshafts without any concern
for the way they came apart.
So, I wouldn't be too concerned about reassembling things
using a new/rebuilt assembly. When you think about it, I
don't even know how the factory or anyone else could "balance"
the entire assembly once it is all bolted together. The driveshaft
can be statically balanced off the car, and I guess the halfshafts
could be also, but I haven't met anyone that does that on any
regular basis on reassembly.
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Bill Sohl || email
Bellcore, Morristown, NJ || UUCP bcr!taichi!whs70
(Bell Communications Research) || or
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