Half shaft hell

[Reinier]

Hi guys,

I'm rebuilding my whole suspension and replacing all bushings, ball joints and u-joints. So while I was working on my half shafts I figured I would take them apart and clean and re-grease everything.

Boy do I regret that decision because I've spent hours trying trying to slide them back together with all the ball bearings and plastic spacers in place. Whatever I do they always get stuck and they won't slide in further like some ball bearings are a bit oversized or tolerances are a bit off. I've tried everything. Slow, fast, adding the bearings afterwards from the other side. Nothing works ;(

The closest I came was when I tried holding the bearings in place with one hand and with the other pushed it in as hard as I could. That way only half of the last spacers would stick out too much but I could not press them in that last half inch...

Is there a trick or am I doing something wrong?

Please help ?

Thnx!

Reinier

Instagram @jdmreinier

DatsunPartZ.com - Little project of mine. A price comparison website for Datsun parts.

 

[wheee!]

Try this...


S30 Half-shaft Disassembly and Rebuild
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?share_fid=83168&share_tid=61539&share_pid=567460&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eclassiczcars%2Ecom%2Findex%2Ephp%3F%2Ftopic%2F61539-S30-Half-shaft-Disassembly-and-Rebuild%2Fpage__view__findpost__p__567460&share_type=t

[26th-Z]

It seems to me that a piston sleeve / clamp ring gadget would be ideal for this.  Thanks for the link.

[Reinier]

Thanks but I don't read anything about the problem I'm having.

[wheee!]

Once I had the inside of the shafts cleaned, I put a small amount of grease on the balls and spacers so they would stick to the shaft, and they slid easily back into the clean tube. I held the top pressure ring against them as I completely pushed them in and I had no problems.

 

[wheee!]

If you read in the FSM, you DO NOT put grease in the shaft receiving end first!

[Reinier]

I will clean everything and try it again with minimal grease. I think I will also put a lot of tape on the shaft so they can't slide up when I press the shaft down. But still I have a feeling something is wrong. It should not be this difficult.

[wheee!]

Grease is the last thing you add before the shaft is assembled. It will bind up your shaft as it slides back in and push the balls and spacers out. Go slow, as the first half of the assembly will slide in easily, then you will need to keep even pressure on the spacers etc. Add the remaining grease as per the thread I quoted above and you can close up the assembly with the top plate and snap ring.

I also placed the open shaft in a vice, vertically so I could lower the ball/spacer shaft assembly down vertically as well. This made it easy to use two hands on the shaft and control the balls and spacers.

 

Yeah, I know.... siteunseen is gonna have a field day with that last statement.

 

[Reinier]

Haha! Okay thanks for your tips. I will give them a try when I get home from work.

[wheee!]

I also added most of the grease for the shaft in the top of the grooves. Minimal in the ball track until the last 30g at the top of each ball run. The grease will get to all the necessary places as the shafts turn and move. As I said earlier, the balls and spacers had a coating of grease on them first to get them to adhere to the shaft.

 

[Zed Head]

You might try adding balls and spacers with everything grease free, until things bind up.  Might make something clear.  Try it with none, and add a few at at a time until it sticks.

Also consider a pneumatic lock.  The air bubble at the bottom gets compressed because all of the grease is creating a seal.

[wheee!]

25 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

You might try adding balls and spacers with everything grease free, until things bind up.  Might make something clear.  Try it with none, and add a few at at a time until it sticks.

Also consider a pneumatic lock.  The air bubble at the bottom gets compressed because all of the grease is creating a seal.

This is why I didn't add grease to the open channels during assembly, only at the end when I topped up the grease.