John,
I did this about a year ago - twice in fact, I didn't put the first one in well
enough and it fell out so I had to do it all again!
Is it the prop-shaft UJ or the one(s) on the drive shafts that is worn? The
biggest job here is removing the shaft from the car - if it is the prop-shaft,
this is a case of removing 4 bolts each end and out it comes - except that
your exhaust pipe sits below the propshaft, so that will have to come off
first.
If it is the drive shaft UJ, you have to remove the driveshaft/hub/suspension
upright as a complete assembly. In theory this shouldn't be too difficult -
take the wheel off, remove 1 bolt to the spring, 1 bolt to the shock absorber,
1 bolt to the radius arm, and 4 bolts holding the UJ flange to the diff output
flange. Problem is, the 3 bolts to the various suspension components will be,
at best, tough to remove, and may well be seized solid. They probably will
come off, eventually, but count on at least 3 bleeding knuckles, and make sure
no-one is around who might be offended by strong language! I had the luxury
of a car hoist, to lift Daffy to an easy-to-work-at height (there is a
workshop at Perkins for employees use), and still took about an hour to get it
all apart.
I'm not sure how Haynes recommends to disassemble the UJs themselves. I found
they need a LOT of load to press them out. What works well is to use a vice
and a couple of sockets (preferably ones you don't mind about...) One socket,
i/d larger than the cup diameter, goes over one side ready to receive the cup,
the other, o/d smaller than the cup diameter, presses on the opposite cup,
then compress it all in a vice. It will take a lot of load, but eventually it
will move. Once a cup is 1/2 way out, you should be able to get some Mole
grips on it and pull it the rest of the way more quickly.
When fitting the new UJ, make sure the cups are far enough in that the circlips
are well seated. This is what I got wrong first time - the circlip fell out,
then the cup it should have been retaining, then the whole UJ self-dismantled.
Since the driveshaft is the primary component locating the wheel, this left the
wheel flopping around out of control. This all happened at 70mph, going round
a corner on a dual carriageway. This was undoubtedly the scariest moment
since I have owned Daffy - I was very fortunate to make it to the side of the
road with no further incident.
You ask whether this would be a simple 'first project'? Hmmmm. As I said, in
theory it is quite straight-forward - just a case of undoing nuts and doing
them back up again. With the reality that these nuts may well not have moved
in 23 years, it is likely to be tough, but is not really a matter of anything
more than application of brute force. If you can't move a nut, find a long
piece of metal pipe, and slip it over the end of your longest socket handle -
as Archimedes said, "Give me a lever, and I can move the earth" (or something
like that). Have good sockets, the right size - you could split a cheap
socket before you move a recalcitrant nut. 6-point sockets are stronger that
12-point sockets.
Give it a go, but expect it to take some time, and you will get there. Make
sure you have all the tools you will need before you start - as someone just
starting out in Classic ownership, you may not have the extensive tool kit
that some more experienced owners do.
Good luck!
Richard and Daffy
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