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Driveshafted, Part 2

To: Spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Driveshafted, Part 2
From: "R.D. Waid" <msp01091@isd.net>
Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2000 22:00:20 -0500

On Sunday, June 4, I wrote:

>On removing the
>driveshaft, I found out that I must have a "sliding spline" driveshaft, as it
>overextended when I pulled it out and it dropped about 40 little cylindrical
>rollers onto the garage floor. I believe there must have a reassembly error by 
>a
>PO which allowed this to happen (some kind of missing retainer?).
>
>I figured out how to reassemble it (Haynes didn't even have a picture), but now
>I'm two rollers short. What's the expert opinion on leaving it that way? I 
>don't
>see how the rollers could get out of position in the closed up spline, but
>Murphy is always lurking around. Are these little rollers the kind of thing
>someone could find at a driveshaft shop or elsewhere?

I found the two missing rollers from the sliding spline driveshaft!!  The
questions I have now are:

1. Do all the rollers lie in the same plane in the races? As the driveshaft was
falling apart in my hands, it seemed that the rollers were alternating with some
perpendicular to others. The height of the cylindrical rollers is exactly the
same as the diameter, so they might be able to lie at right angles to each other
in the races. It was easy to put the spline back together if I put them all in
in the same plane in each race. The spline slides in and out very smoothly.

2. Should the shaft-mounted yokes of the U-joints be perpendicular or parallel?
ISTR from earlier posts that they should be perpendicular. 

Any comments/advice appreciated!  

Bob Waid
71 Mark IV FK4081L

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