Hey guys, just a quick question for the morning.

My 88 mayfair has some pretty ugly noises coming from the CV's when I turn corners now, and my daily driver also blew a CV boot over the weekend.

I'm now planning to see some guys not far from my work who do exchange driveshafts, and before I ask whether they have mini ones I want to know whether they're a one-size-fits-all deal.

Any help?

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you can't be unhappy in a poncho, or a mini

Driveshaft won't be the problem, it'll be the CV itself.

Ring a mini place and buy another one (disc brake version).

These guys refurbish the CV's on both ends, so will give you a complete driveshaft.

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you can't be unhappy in a poncho, or a mini

There were a few variants and combinations.
For example:

Left and right shafts are different lengths
Disc and drum CVs are different
there were 4 types of inner joint - rubber uni, hardy spicer, early CV and late CV.

Your car has the later inner CVs - these weren't available on cars sold out here, so finding an exchange unit on the shelf would be tricky (at a generic driveshaft place), but if you left it with them they'd get the parts - probably from a mini parts supplier (so possibility of markup on markup).

Can I make a suggestion to you: take the mini to a mini workshop and have them do it, and if the disc rotors are getting old put some new ones on, and get the front bearings checked. The CV hub nut is pretty tight and evything else has to come off anyway, so convenient to check everything at once to cutdown on time and labour.
Last thing you want to is spend a few bob on the shafts and find out the noise was a bearing!

Yeah, good thinking. The only problem for me is that there isn't a decent mini shop for a quite a way over here. I don't have a problem with doing it myself.

Having a look, I made the stupid assumption that it works the same as some other cv's that I've played with, where the driveshaft engages the balls on the cv, so the in the mini's case the driveshafts are just splined into the inner cage, correct? So yeah, you're right, new CV's and new new bearings would be the go.

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you can't be unhappy in a poncho, or a mini

Thats correct. You can remove the shaft from the car leaving the inner CV with cage, balls and the rubber boot all left in place. Removing it as an assembly means you need to drain the oil first ofcourse.

The outer cv needs to have the boot / gaiter removed first, then the CV can come off the shaft.

When refurbishing, they reuse the shafts & inner races but fit new oversize ball bearings.

As said, they probably won't have an exchange pair to suit yours on the shelf, but they can certainly refurb yours.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

Where is "over here" ?

As a suggestion, update the Location field in your profile so those offering advice can suggest where best to source your parts or service.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43