[ROVERNET - UK] Drive shaft vibration

Sat Jun 19 07:15:12 BST 2004

I had a similar problem and similar excellent service from the Hardie Spicer
service centre at Moorebank Sydney on my 1966 3 litre Mk11C

In my case they found part of the vibration resulted from the   yokes on the
flange of the rear propellor shaft  being heavily worn-at 86000 miles.I had
previously replaced all UJs without curing the vibration.
Hardie-Spicer  replaced the flange from existing stock and rebalanced the
shaft .
I  also replaced all the 4 sets of rubbers holding the centre bearing
housing to the body namely
Grommet male half -fixing bracket to prop shaft tunnel part 76649 x 4
Grommet female half                                                   part
76650 x 4
Bearing for shaft (Centre Bearing)                                part261775
Sourced from Tim Kent in Melbourne
Rubber Bush for rear of front propellor shaft    Part235919x2
Sourced from Spectrum Rubber Sydney. If you are in UK best try specialists
there. Whilst the rubbers taken off were in passable condition, they were at
least 18 years old( I've owned the car that long!)
I took the 235919s to Spectrum  which were a common to a number of classic
cars apparently and available over the counter. It may be overkill but I
dont like having to re-do a job twice. Natural rubber tends to deteriorate
and harden with barely an outward sign in this hot climate..

Each grommet has a steel distance piece . After an hour of frustration
trying to bolt up the trannie shaft, I refitted one side at a time loosely
as trying to get each grommet distance piece +bolt properly seated  in the
hole to insulate the bracket from the prop shaft tunnel is a time consuming
task. I then did the other side and only then tightened everything up.
Adjusting the height of the centre bearing came last.

This may be useless information but in case you have much trouble finding
new UJs

My QuintonHazell 1981 catalogue lists as part QL16204 also fitting Jag XJ6
1968-81,Jag Mk11 2.4,3.4,3.8 to 1967,Rover P6 1963-1977 Volvo B20E engined
142/144/145/164 1968-1974,
Volvo242,244,246 1974-81 Ford Transit 1970-78.
Part No Cross Reference is apparently similar to P4 1959 onwards.
Volvo231311
Ford24024-4635A,
Automotive Products DC4
Hardy Spicer K5-6862 or 3151162N
Unipart GUJ108
There may be errors in the cross referencing so dont take the info above  as
gospel.
(sorry Kent if that sounds like blasphemy!)
Check the part with with your distributor or Hardies if they dont have parts
catalogued back to the '50s like here.
Hardy Spicer in Australia deal principally in Heavy truck transmissions but
there should be a similar one stop professional shop set up in UK that can
check out the shaft for yoke wear -if the slogger is causing vibration as in
my case.

Incidentally I also got the rear springs rebuilt (first time in 16 years) by
Lovells -a local firm -out of the best of two sets-existing and a
wreck's.They only needed to re temper the main leaf and modify the taper of
the bottom leaf to facilitate trailer towing  .Amazingly the 16 year old
Koni shock absorbers didnt need reconditioning.
Now the car sits right and the tail shaft runs in a straight line to the
diff.
Also the twin  rubber mounting at the rear end of each rear spring is under
less stress.

Best of Luck

Ian Gilleran

The noise level previously thought to be a noisy differential has
disappeared completely.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barry Riseley" <barry-riseley at trump.net.au>
To: <rovernet at lyris.ccdata.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2004 10:58 AM
Subject: Re: [ROVERNET - UK] Drive shaft vibration

> Hello David and the group,
>
> I had real problems with my P4 105S in the matter of tailshaft vibration.
> I follow the exact procedures in the official workshop manual for
tailshaft
> assembly and "alinement"
>
> While that improved matters slightly I still had a vibration at around , I
> think 35 to 45 mph.
>
> I ended up taking the car the  a "Hardie Spicer" Service Centre for
> tailshaft balancing.
>
> This cost me somewhere in the region of $ 100 Australian.
>
> That expenditure removed all vibration, and goes down in my memory as the
> most significant single repair improvement I have ever made to a motor car
> in my life.
>
> >From memory, I think one of the traps for the uninitiated in the assembly
> of a Rover P4 tailshaft is that the original factory balance marks
> following a different practice to that utilised more commonly (in OZ
anyway).
>
> That is to say that balance marks on the front tailshaft are place 180
> degrees away from the balance marks on the rear tailshaft.
>
> The idea is that say the front tailshaft is 10 Oz heavy at the marked
point
> and the rear shaft is 9 Oz heavy at its marked point then the 180 degrees
> arrangement cancels out the total out of balance to be 1 Oz. I know that
> the figures I have given are not "real" but serve to give the principle.
>
> The standard practice elsewhere in other cars is for all balance marks to
> be simply lined up.
>
> The resulting confusion, to other than Rover Mechanics (an where do you
> find them nowadays) means that re assembly on Rover shafts is often made,
> in error, such that the Out of balances add rather than cancel.
>
>
> But, I still say that a competent balancer will be able to fix the whole
> drive line.
>
> Hope the above is of some value
>
>
> Barry R
>
> Tasmania
>
>
> At 04:31 PM 18/06/04 -0700, you wrote:
> >Rovernetters
> >
> >A few months ago there was an address on this net for
> >a paper on vibration diagnosis which I printed.   My
> >car has a vibration and today I took off the back
> >wheels and drums and ran up to the vibration speed as
> >was suggested.   There was enough vibration to shake
> >the steering wheel.   Can any netters suggest how I
> >can check the angles of the u-joints without an
> >inclinometer?
> >
> >All suggestions will be welcome.  Thank you an
> >advance.
> >
> >David Gatrell
> >1965 P-5 MkIIc
> >
> >
> >
> >__________________________________
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