Hello again helpers.

Firstly let me just thank everyone for their help on my MOT failure a few weeks ago. With a bit of help i got another 12 months on my Felicia.

Bad news;

Yesterday i tried to pull away from the traffic lights at work and the offside DRIVESHAFT fell completely from the car. I got a very helpful neighbour to tow me home.

Now if anyone would kindly guide me through the process of repairing my car i would be grateful. I have the driveshaft in my boot but the circular washer type things from the inner end (sorry) have come off and subsequently a load of the little bearing pins have fell out.

First question is would i need a new Driveshaft? The other question is as i have done a few jobs myself, but am still a total novice, is it fairly simple to replace? It doesn't look like the toughest of fixes...

Thanks in advance

Danny -x-

If you've lost a load of bearing rollers from the differential casing then you are going to have to source a second hand gearbox from somewhere. And probably a new driveshaft as well.

Hi TeflonTom.

The driveshaft has come off and at the inner end of the shaft there is a load of tiny bearing pins underneath a washer type thing. Are you sure these are to do with the gearbox? I may sound thick here but they look like they would just be on the end of the shaft?

Pictures tell a thousand words.

Ok i will go and take some now. Thicko didn't think of that first....BRB

Let me know if those pics are ok.

The only problem i seem to have is the little pins underneath that washer type thing. Otherwise the shaft looks ok to me.....

Ah yea ok, the inner tripod joint has separated and fallen apart... Not the end of the world, the gearbox will be ok, at first i though you meant it had pulled out the box...

any who, there will still be a portion of this stuck in the gearbox, you will need to drain the oil out of of the gearbox first before trying to pull this out. You will need a lever bar or a crowbar to remove this from the gearbox, it's only held in by a circlip.

that shaft is probably ok to use again, you can buy an inner joint on its own, but it would probably be easier to get another whole unit, it also looks very dry, there's been no grease on that tripod, that's probably why it's broken.

Nah it wasn't very dry i cleaned it up. I can grease it back up again. Will i need to buy them bearing pins if i don't buy the whole unit? Sorry for being useless but god knows where them bearing pins have spread too. The cheapest fix is what i'm after. Spent enough on parts these last few weeks. Changing cars is not an option as the wife has grown incredibly attached bless her.

I have the car on axle stands and thought i would try driving it to check the other side but only the broken side was spinning? Is that normal?

Thanks TeflonTom

Yes that's normal for one side to spin, or if the shaft was in there and there was equal load on each side they would spin in opposite directions....

for cheapness i would say just go to a breakers yard and get one, £20 ish I would have thought... Don't even bother trying to put all those needle bearings back in, it'll lever work.

Ahh ok thanks very much. I'll see what i can do then. Does the whole shaft need to from the exact same model felicia?

No all felicia's petrol and diesel have the same driveshafts.

Getting a whole unit from breakers later for £25 from a Diesel. Do I need to get some circlips? If so what size are they?

Fitted my driveshaft yesterday and didn't need to drain any oil. Decided to try it the way another user did and jack the car to a ridiculous angle. Needless to say the car feels great at the moment but i guess i am probably low on gearbox oil if i didnt seem to lose a drop. onwards and upwards...

i would prob do a oil change on gear box whats the mileage on it they are easy cars to work on very simple i changed mine from a 1.3 to 1.6 with aircon top spec and has never let me down...