So, was it the propshaft UJ?
Hi yes it was the rear one...no play could be felt while on the car but once off it flopped around like a fish out of water....
The problems did not stop there either.
I should never have tackled replacing the shafts after a night on the pop at my mates 40th birthday Saturday night.
I bought a set of shafts and a prop shaft off a fella and sent these off to be checked over and repaired as required. These came back no issues at all so far as I could see at the time.
I am always short of time so hangover or not I was fitting the rebuilt shafts come what may.
The rear half shafts were a doddle.. and went on with no issues at all. After faffing around under the car again and squeezing old hands into tight places I got the old prop shaft off.
I looked at this and could actually feel the wear in the relaxed joints.. AWFUL.. no wonder the car was shaking around like a wonky washing machine.
This is where the project went a bit off the rails. I KNOW I should have greased the input shaft first...before inserting it though the rear oil seal I didnt!!... Plonker.
The shaft went in okay.. I bunged all the nuts and bolts back in and went for a run. I heard a tinkling noise as I set off as though there was a spring rubbing in the rear drum.. it was behind me so I thought nothing of it..This seemed to vanish after the big L24 started making music.
I called for some petrol and carried on. The car had been sat in the garage for a while as I looked out the rear window it looked dusty. I caught a whiff off something hot and rubbery in the car. as it happens I was following an old van that that appeared to be on it's last legs. I assumed that the smell was coming from the van.
I entered a dual carriage way and let rip. Thats when I discovered that I had rid myself of the dreaded vibes.. Great it was wonderful and smooooth.. excellent job done I thought..
I passed the van.. and looked in the mirror.. Oh my GOD... there was a plume of oily smoke following me.. it would have done a brilliant job as a smoke screen ... I eased off and as it happens I was close to a slip road. I free wheeled the car and parked up. The smell was worse outside the car.. there was smoke coming from the middle underside of the car. I looked down and saw oil dripping from the area around the back of the gear box.. I then and only then asked myself DID I GREASE THE SHAFT? After realising my mistake and whacked some sense into my self with a branch found by the road side, Doh.. I assumed the oil seal did not like a dry spin and had worn out in double fast time allowing oil to pass and get all over the exhaust.hence the hot rubbery smell..
I dove back home at 20MPH and keeping the revs as low as possible. she got me home bless, which was only 5 miles away. I looked under it again and there was still oil dripping.
I put her to bed in the garage and went inside to sulk and ponder my stupidity.
Monday my day off. I was feeling much better after the hangover. I needed some wood that was on the racking above the car. I did not want to move it so I got out the ladders and attempted to get the wood off the racking. Got the piece I was looking for grasped in my fingers and pulled it towards me... However as the wood was higher than me I did not see the other shorter piece laying on top of it, as I pulled it dropped.. with slow motion and to my bloody curdling scream of NO..not the actual word I used
the wood angled down towards my dusty but beautiful 240Z bonnet. It landed corner down and I felt the pain in my heart as it slid off the car leaving a dent behind it. My oaths were somewhat colourful at the time. God I hate DIY and fitting this bloody bedroom I thought. I examined the dent it was not so bad and I managed to push most of it out with my finger.. Another Job..My pride and joy injured sob sob.. to make matters worse I did not have to use the piece of wood..
I finished the DIY and ordered a new oil seal from Mike.. I got the car in the air again and went under it.. the oil had coated just about everything. I spent half an hour cleaning it off and went to work taking off the prop shaft {again}. As I pulled the prop shaft free..bits of metal followed it.. you can imagine my horror. I examined them under the car. they looked like weld splatter for the want of a better description. globules. I thought I had fried the gearbox at first. I looked in the housing and could not see an oil seal at all.. I slid out from under the car thinking I had pulled the oil seal out with the old prop shaft and never refitted it... I took the bits of metal with me as well. I found the old shaft and was relieved the oil seal was not on the shaft. I looked at the metal.. I thought bits of bearing..? I checked them with a magnet, not magnetic,, interesting.
I went back under the car and examined the flange where the oil seal sits. No problems there. But as you know the 240Z has a shroud that slides over the end of the gearbox but does not touch it.. This was bright and shiny
I took the replacement prop shaft and looked closely at the metal shroud. Its supposed to be round.. It wasn't it looked like it had been in a vice at some point and flattened on one side and someone had tried to re shape it.. I looked at the area where the flats were and could see evidence of heating.. not good. the oil seal showed signs of melting at well.
I looked at the input shaft and this was slightly scored I was not happy with it. It was impossible to re shape the shroud. My welder has packed up so I could not just drill the welds out and replace it with the good shroud off my original prop shaft. I decided to change the joints over. After much bashing this was accomplished and checked.. I now had a smooth shaft
and a round shroud, all I needed was the oil seal..
This is what I think happened. The tinkling noise I heard was in fact the shroud rubbing on the alloy of the gearbox casing acting a little bit like a lathe. As I drove the friction and rubbing heated up the casing as this got hot bits of molten alloy were pushed back into the shroud.. the heat then transferred to the seal which got hot and combined with a dry shaft popped out of the housing resulting in the oil loss and smoke...
My advice:
Do not work on you car with a hangover... that's the moral of the story I now have the seal {thanks again mike} and will tonight get under the car and replace the shaft and seal.. greasing it up correctly this time. Top up the lost oil and take it for a spin. I will report back and let you know if I have sorted it and not caused major deformation to the end of the gearbox..
The perils of booze. I am tea total now until at least friday night!
I feel better now I have shared... has anyone had a similar exploit.. funny or not when working on their cars..?
