couple of driveshaft questions

[Martin_172]

This cars doing my head in, its just not running right, thought it was the engine mounts so changed them all and problems still there so trying a few other ideas!

• if a driveshaft or both driveshafts were shot, would it cause the car to jerk when coming off the throttle or quickly hitting the throttle ( feels like a worn engine mount but all 4 replaced and not cured it!)

• should there be ANY play in the shaft at all? O/S driveshaft has a small amount of play at the inner side (where it goes into the gearbox) but only a slight movement when you shake it (kinda like a rattle if you know what i mean)

• I cant see because the cars lowered and ive not got time to jack the car up but when i touched the inner gaitor i came out with my hand covered in grease so im assuming its split, will this have already caused any damage?

 

[Rob 88]

If the gaiter is split it'll turn the grease into an abrasive mixture causing wear at a fast rate. There shouldn’t be any play in drive shafts as the UJ’s allow for the all of the movement. The tripod plunge joint will move in and out very, very slightly though. Also if the rubber ring is damaged it will be like an unbalanced wheel. If I was you id open the engine bay, get someone to rev the engine and see if the engine is moving excessively. This won’t spin the driveshafts so if you can still feel movement then it maybe a misfire??? Hope that helps

 

[Martin_172]

nope its solid when reving and doesnt move much when rocking the engine back and forward (just the amount of movement you would expect from new mounts.

when coming into my street tonight i turned into the drive quite quickly and started braking when turning and heard a little clunk that sounded like the OS shaft so think its done! ill go in tomorrow and order a new one, might as well do both for piece of mind actually as im planning on doing the gearbox oil anyway!

cheers