Rear driveshaft re-furbish part 1

The time is approaching where I need to give consideration to getting the rear driveshafts fitted onto the chassis, however before fitting, the shafts need some serious TLC having come from a sierra donor. Time to reacquaint myself with one of the first purchases made when I embarked on this fascinating kit car build.

First task was to take a wire brush drill attachment to the shafts and remove as much of the surface rust and grim as possible, this task proved quite rewarding and is worth taking the time and effort to get as good a finish as possible - I was pleasantly surprised at how well the shafts were coming up.

I also want to replace the universal joint rubber gaiters with new ones whilst the shafts are removed from the car so I took a sharp knife to the existing gaiters and stripped those off the driveshaft - promptly releasing grease/oil onto the garage floor as a had forgot the gaiters contain a surprisingly large quantity of lubricant!

next step remove the hubs which fit onto the spline - this was a challenge and required a three legged puller to remove the hub from the spline - remember the nut which holds the hub on has a reverse thread so don't make the rookie error of inadvertently tightening it.

Finally, the present wheel studs are too short for the alloys which I ultimately intend to fit so I took the opportunity to remove those which in turn will be replaced with 47mm studs at a later date. These are extremely difficult to remove and I ultimately found the best tool to do this job was a £9.99 ball joint splitter from machine mart which together with some brute force releases the old stud from the hub.

So the driveshaft was now in a position to be fully degreased and be prep'd ready for some Hammerite paint.


Next stage, fit new rubber gaitors....