Center Support Bearing Bracket Snapped On One Side

[EViS]

Around 35 miles from home today the rear end of my truck started to judder at low speed (traffic, junctions, etc). To get through the judder, I gave it some power every time and it smoothed out. Once I got above 15mph, it didn't feel too bad and the motorway didn't feel any different. Got home to find that the bracket from the Center Support Bearing on the driveshaft had snapped (corroded) on one side. This pushed the shaft down and off-centre towards the petrol tank, thankfully only rubbing on the heatshield and not having got to the plastic tank just yet.

What are the chances that this may have bent the driveshaft or at the very least damaged any bearings? Or is the chance pretty much nil and all I need is a new bracket?

[lucido grigio]

I had a prop shaft centre bearing fail on an Iveco 7.5T years ago ,fairly sure they just replaced

the bearing not the prop itself.

It was almost completely undrivable on mine, had to limp from M25 roundabout up the A12 to the first layby.

[Steve_D]

The bearing is alongside a universal joint. The joint is to cope with changes in alignment so no damage will have occurred. The bearing bracket breaking off completely would be a whole world of hurt and would do significant damage.

Steve

[EViS]

Steve_D said:

The bearing is alongside a universal joint. The joint is to cope with changes in alignment so no damage will have occurred. The bearing bracket breaking off completely would be a whole world of hurt and would do significant damage.

Steve

Thanks Steve. There's another UJ at the diff and one behind the tranny. But, can UJ's cope with a driveshaft throwing itself all over the place like I assume it must have done?

[paintman]

Fit a new bracket. See whether normal service is resumed.

[crossy67]

That's an Iveco if ever I saw one. No damage, new bearing and away you go.

[Steve_D]

EViS said:

Steve_D said:

The bearing is alongside a universal joint. The joint is to cope with changes in alignment so no damage will have occurred. The bearing bracket breaking off completely would be a whole world of hurt and would do significant damage.

Steve

Thanks Steve. There's another UJ at the diff and one behind the tranny. But, can UJ's cope with a driveshaft throwing itself all over the place like I assume it must have done?

With one leg of the bracket still in place it has not been moving very far.
As I said before if the other one were to break..... hang onto your hat as things will get nasty.

Steve

[EViS]

Thanks for the replies .

Unfortunately Ford do not supply the brackets on their own, or even the bearings, they can 'only' sell me a new propshaft with bearing and bracket (!).

Who should I approach to either repair or preferably make a new bracket? It seems like such a small job I'm not sure if a local metal fabricator who makes gates/beams/etc. would be interested...

[stevieturbo]

TBH, if the bearing was in good order, shaft in good order, all joints moving freely etc, you could just easily weld that back together.

The bearing/carrier itself, if you knew dimensions etc, look like a part commonly used in the US.

just search on ebay.com for ford centre bearing and loads of them will appear. But whilst many look the same externally, they will have different sized bearings in the middle for different applications.

Or places in the UK like Dave Mac, RecoProp, Hardy Spicer etc may well have stuff.

[GreenV8S]

stevieturbo said:

TBH, if the bearing was in good order, shaft in good order, all joints moving freely etc, you could just easily weld that back together.

Makes sense to me. Almost any local garage will have somebody who can do small welding jobs for beer tokens, and I'd just show them the broken parts and ask whether could fix/make a replacement.

[crossy67]

The reason I thought it was an Iveco is because I have client with one who's centre bearing (one of a few on this van) fell apart just like that one. I made another bracket with a strip of 3mm, really easy and still holding things together after 3 years.

[stevieturbo]

GreenV8S said:

Makes sense to me. Almost any local garage will have somebody who can do small welding jobs for beer tokens, and I'd just show them the broken parts and ask whether could fix/make a replacement.

Of course there is the aspect of a proper garage doing it.....with potential risks, they might prefer replacement. And it would make perfect sense.

But the shaft needs checked to see why that failed in the manner it did in case something is seizing up

[GreenV8S]

stevieturbo said:

But the shaft needs checked to see why that failed in the manner it did in case something is seizing up

That's a fair point. The point of failure looks like a stress point where the bracket narrows around the bolt hole, so I don't think it's particularly likely there's anything dodgy going on with the drive shaft. However, it'd be smart to have a good look for potential problems while you're there. I could well understand a dealer/garage not wanting to take responsibility for the repair. But I'd expect them to be happy just to weld the bracket back up, if you did the rest of the work.

[sidgolf]

that bracket looks flimsy when taking into account what it does-no wonder its failed

[sunbeam alpine]

I'd be breaking out the welder for that - 5 minutes work.

[GreenV8S]

sidgolf said:

that bracket looks flimsy when taking into account what it does-no wonder its failed

Presumably it's carrying half the weight of both prop shafts. How heavy would they be? With dampers putting several G in, I imagine the peak loads could be quite high.

[stevieturbo]

sidgolf said:

that bracket looks flimsy when taking into account what it does-no wonder its failed

It has to do very little other than support some of the weight of the propshaft....and same bracket is used on millions of vehicles.

[EViS]

I unbolted the bracket and the piece which was still attached to the chassis (as in the photo). Upon loosening the bolt holding the piece up, it dropped to the floor into two pieces - sheared straight down the middle of the bolt hole! I popped over to a local fabricator who welded the pieces back onto the bracket and strengthened both sides with some gussets.



Gave it a good clean and a coat of primer which highlighted this crack on the other side of the bracket. This is the side which did not break off and was still holding the shaft up, albeit pretty bent up. Would it be worth welding this split, or will the extra heat potentially make the metal more brittle/form more splits and the gussets are sure to hold everything together anyway?



Before I bolt it back up and forget anything ever happened, and short of removing the driveshaft and taking it to a specialist to pop onto one of their balancing machines, are there any 'home mechanic' things I can do / look out for to determine whether there is in deed anything funny going on with the shaft?

Edited by EViS on Tuesday 28th February 22:39

[GreenV8S]

Have you got enough access to do the bolts up?

[stevieturbo]

I would weld up the crack.


And you could chuck some allen key bolts in there if socket space is restricted.

Basically check the shaft that it is free to turn, none of the joints etc are seized or sticking, and also that the centre bearing feels free and not seized.