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Bang, There Goes My Driveline...


Mercury-BA

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  • Member
  • Member For: 15y 6m 29d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Dampier, WA

Hey guys and girls,

After a 8 months of owning a BA Turbs... I have had my first serious mechanical failure. My diff bush is shagged (the OEM one) which gave a fair bit of play in the diff since I first bought it, and last week I ordered a SuperPro bush to put in but it appears it was too late. I am honestly not sure, but my hypothesis is that due to the unsecured diff allowing play and knocking in the drive line, must have just put too much pressure on the bearing located just in front of the diff and BANG... no drive and bearing components all over the road and f*ckin grease everywhere... :crybaby:

So yes, jacked her up today, dropped the tailshaft and pulled the remnants of the bearing out. I am just posting this in the hope that someone might know the technical names for these parts in the photos, considering my local auto shop is run by morons, I would prefer to tell them exactly what I need. The tailshaft is fine, it is just that bearing before the diff, and the housing (where the ball-bearings tried to explode out the side), and the dirt/grease seal that sits on the tailshaft. :turboboink:

102_2553.jpg

The spline of the tailshaft you can see in this photo slid into the front of the housing and then connected to the bearing...

102_2554.jpg

102_2555.jpg

Anyone got any different ideas on the root cause of this problem? And does anyone know the actual name of this bearing/housing set up? Feel free to post your opinions...

Edited by Mercury-BA
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  • Member
  • Member For: 15y 10m 18d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Burpengary QLD

Doubt it would have been caused by the diff bush being worn out, I'd say more to do with that clutch you have in there dumping all the power at once through the driveline and the weakest part finally decided to go bang.

If anything, the extra play in the r00ted diff bush may have been saving it.

The damage looks more consistent with excessive torque with the way the housing is deformed and twisted.

I think they call the part the pinion bearing, but I'm no mechanic and pretty sure someone will be along soon to correct me if I'm wrong.

Cheers,

Ben

Edited by BensXR6T
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  • Member
  • Member For: 16y 11m 3d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Brisbane

Tailshaft rear CV joint, ball type.

Give me the old cross style uni joints any day.

The larger than normal pinion angles generated from a rooted bush would not have helped, but they compress up pretty well even when in good nick.......hmmmmm. Shock loading from the bolt slamming into the cradle would have added to this IMO.

Looks like too much power/shock loading/ or just plain unlucky to me .

Edited by Smoke them tyres
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  • Member
  • Member For: 15y 6m 29d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Dampier, WA

Yeah I knew the brass-button would put a bit of stress on the drivetrain, and yeah, looks like she finally gave up the fight. Is there any stronger ones in the market that anyone knows of, and cost? I will have to do the ring-around at work tomorrow I think... oh well, gives me a chance to put the new diff bush and do all the other little nigly upgrades while I wait for parts lol

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  • Member For: 16y 11m 3d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Brisbane

These multi piece tailshafts are sometimes not worth the effort......over complicating what is a simple function really. If my BF one goes, I'll replace it with a single piece one with old style uni's.

Might be worth talking to some driveshaft places. Knowing Ford, the std one would be a reasonably std industry dimension.....maybe talk to Hardy Spicer about options (CV-860 or CV-861 is their part number for the std unit from their website catalogue). Haven't had too much experience with this style of joint. The material thickness of the cage and horsepower are not a good mix at keeping the balls in the right places inside the joint. European FWD cars run a tripod style joint which some think is better.

The shaft will be similar strength all along it's length, so may be a case of replacing the whole unit. I would be changing to a more progressive clutch IMO. There are some good ones around now that can easily handle that power. It's usual that a part can live at more horsepower with lower shock loading than the other way round.

Let us know how you go........

Edited by Smoke them tyres
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Member
  • Member For: 15y 6m 29d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Dampier, WA

Oh well gents, rang around and only managed to find ONE place that sell a suitable bearing. Ordered it, and $750-f*cking-dollars later put it in. It was the right size however the bolt holes that mount the joint to the diff were all about a mil to small, so I drilled them out (voiding my 5 year warranty that came with the bearing), put it, bolted it all together and took it for a spin. I managed to make it down my driveway in reverse and put it in first before I heard that delightful crunch noise and hear the tailshaft spinning, but me not going anywhere. I pushed the bastard thing back up the driveway and looked at it the next day. The spline on the tailshaft was obviously weakened some how broke and was now just spinning in the joint. SO, I am gonna get the local automotive joint to fix the tailshaft...

While I was at it I also did my diff bush, changed it out with the super-pro one, so I will let you know how that goes as well... when I get the thing back on the road... ugh

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  • Member For: 15y 5m 9d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Brisbane

rotten luck mate. Don't know what the standard procedure is for fixing the splines. Maybe take it to a machine shop and get them to spray weld and mill the splines. Should turn out to be much tougher than the standard jobbie.

good luck mate

cheers, J

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  • Member For: 15y 6m 29d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Dampier, WA

yeah I am not sure either, I figured they would just lop the spline off at the weld and machine a new one and weld it back on, balancing it in the process... but I guess we will find out. I just hope its cheap cause this car is chewing up my savings lol

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Member
  • Member For: 14y 8m 14d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Rockhampton

That sucks man, I'm doing a clutch change on my BA MK2 Turbo ute and discovered the center joint in my tailshaft is flogged out. Awesome bloke up here in rocky by the name of Jim Purcell is fixing it for bugger all $$. He gets driveshafts sent to him from all over aus for speedway, drags and comp 4x4's. Seems like a good place to me..

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