Hi, I've ordered my new driveshaft (nearside) so will be fitting it soon. Roughly (if no major probs occur) how long should I expect it to take and what tips can anyone give me? The hyanes manual makes it all seem so straightforward! Haynes also made changing the front strut sound straightforward, no mention of the two hours of wrestling with the lower clamp bolt!

Any real world help and tips would be ace!

Hi, I've ordered my new driveshaft (nearside) so will be fitting it soon. Roughly (if no major probs occur) how long should I expect it to take and what tips can anyone give me? The hyanes manual makes it all seem so straightforward! Haynes also made changing the front strut sound straightforward, no mention of the two hours of wrestling with the lower clamp bolt!

Any real world help and tips would be ace!

when i changed the nearside one on our old felly i found that you dont need to disconnect everything and remove the hub. I found that if i simply popped off the steering track rod end (by undoing the balljoint nut on it and tapping it free) i had enought "turn" in the whole suspension to get enough clearance to remove the shaft.

You will most likely need a breaker bar for the hub nut, and its a 30mm nut. They are done up very tight. I had to jump with my whole weight on mine to crack it loose, with the wheel on the ground and a trolley jack positioned to balance the large 30mm socket to keep it straight and not rounding the nut.

a soft mallet or hammer+wood will tap the old shaft free from the gearbox nice and easy.

when fitting the new shaft to the gearbox end, use soft mallet or hammer+wood to "click" it into place.

i lost about 0.5l of oil.

hope this helps

if you only lost about 0.5L of gear oil when you popped the driveshaft out then you have problems there!!!!

I would do it by seperating the ball joint from the track control arm and pulling the hub off the end, you will need a prybar to get the inner cv joint out of the gearbox

if you only lost about 0.5L of gear oil when you popped the driveshaft out then you have problems there!!!!

I would do it by seperating the ball joint from the track control arm and pulling the hub off the end, you will need a prybar to get the inner cv joint out of the gearbox

nah, i had the car tilted quite a bit and got the new one in quick as

thanks people, i shall make sure I have a tray ready! I had a look at buying the separate bits to recon my driveshaft, not worth it one bit when a new one (poss recon??) is available from europarts for £57 odd.

yeah that sounds about right for a exchange re-con one, my local motor factors does an exchange shaft for £60 and the returnable surcharge is £15 iirc