I will be attempting to change my rubber uni joints
do I have to remove the drive shaft or can i just undo the"U"bolts and drop it out


Cheers

Gadget

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With lots of swear words and rotating the shaft to get at all four lock nuts...you can do it without removing the driveshaft.

Tip: buy some new nyloc nuts for the job.....and, sometimes the U Bolts spring open a tad once dissasembled (Mr BFH or Mr Vice can be your friend here to make a small adjustment).

Great day for it!!

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"Show me the Mini!"

[quote="9YaTaH"]

With lots of swear words and rotating the shaft to get at all four lock nuts...

quote]

i hope you have small, girl-like hands! or very thick skin.I do not envy you at all!
have fun

(retreats to law assignment)

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speed costs....how fast do you want to go...

New uni joints come with new u-bolts and nyloc nuts anyway

Good Anto ....they dint always and may not still from all suppliers Better to mention it anyway

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"Show me the Mini!"

Make sure not to over-tighten the nylock nuts.
They should only be done up to 10 to 12.5 lb.ft. (1.38 to 1.73 kg/m) which would be about as tight as a 5 year old could do them.

If you do them up too much they will fail very quickly.

I split a ball joint to make it easier, can't remember which but one side has more movement than the other and tha side is easier to change than the other.

Good idea...but you can get away with it so long as you can get full lock (to get between the couplings) with the car jacked up high at the front.

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"Show me the Mini!"

The way I have done it in the past (and applies to both sides) is to take out the lower bump stop and with the weight of the car on the suspension, put a wedge in where the bump stop was to stop the supension from moving when jacking the car up. This also enables you to remove the lower suspension arm bolt and allows you to swing the suspension away from the subframe. This then gives you enough room to slip the rubber universal out. Pretty much the same as breaking a ball joint but as with most ball joints, they are a dog to release without the proper tool.

HINT

Rotate the drive shafts as you tighten up the U bolts - it makes the rubber CV sit into their positions.

Once you have tightened it all up - rotate the shafts quite a few times and then check the u-bolt tightness again. Often they are loose.