Axle or Half Shaft of ZF ?

Tony,

The first and easiest thing to check/fix is to ensure that the bolts attaching the half-shafts to the hubs and to the ZF are tight. If not, then you need to isolate what is loose. It is possible that it is something hitting the car frame as well, such as a broken exhaust hanger letting the mufflers bang around. These are not super-likely causes, but they are ones that are easy and cheap to fix. Getting the wheels off the ground and moving things around may produce other symptoms.

Good luck. I hope others chime in, and that the answer is found quickly and inexpensively.

Mark

You have a clunk ... but the car still drives ? If so probably a universal joint loose or bolts on the flanges as Mark said .. and consider yourself very lucky because a broken axle would send you in a hard turn perpendicular to the direction you were driving and very hard to recover from that.

Ron

Hi Guys, the advice I got is that its probably bad universal joints (in the half shaft). It ran for a bit before I turned it off - I didn't want to damage anything unnecessarily.

It did sound like a u-joint. I'm going to try replacing just the u-joints not the entire half shaft. Does this seem like a reasonable plan or am I wasting my time ?

Tony

quote:

I'm going to try replacing just the u-joints not the entire half shaft. Does this seem like a reasonable plan or am I wasting my time ?

Not at all a waste of time.

If your shafts are stock, you'll need to hook up with a vendor to get replacement u-joints; they are no longer terribly expensive.

If you have Spicer replacement half shafts, those should be available locally. The permanently lubed units are fine for our use - P/N 5-801X. That means no annual grease gun adventures with the subsequent grease slinging all over the engine bay/bottom of fiberglass tub.

Probably best to press these in rather than the old hammer and socket routine. If you have a press, fine. If not, pay someone for an hour of their time and save yourself the headache.

Others may say to use the joints with the zerk fittings.

I too had always leaned towards those units, until this year.

I replaced all the joints on 2511. The guy at the driveline shop, upon hearing that the car only got 5-7 thousands miles annually, said go with the permanently lubed units. He said they will last at least ten years at that rate.

Larry

Once you remove the half shafts you will find that they are two piece shafts that slide apart. Be sure to keep them in pairs because they are balanced. Also look for a line scratched into the metal on each piece where they slide together. This is an alignment mark and they should be reassembled so that these lines are aligned for proper balance.

Mooso

quote:

Originally posted by mooso:
Also look for a line scratched into the metal on each piece where they slide together. This is an alignment mark and they should be reassembled so that these lines are aligned for proper balance.

Mooso

Mine (1971) were marked with a small triangle stamped on each end.

Mark