Help needed about rear UJs

[jchase]

This is a great site, I had a noise from the rear under cornering, did a search and isolated a quick test for the UJs. Yep I have 2mm of play in one of my UJs. Ineteresting clonking under extreme roundabout speed.

The question is I was planning a long trip this weekend, should I go? I'm thinking not.

The UJs seem to be HUGE (1986 350I FHC with A frame rear ) and have a grease nipple. Now I heard there are many different types - do I have to disaasemble to make a measurement? or is the nipple enough to satisfy (oo-er).

-Jim

[Number 7]

jchase said:

This is a great site, I had a noise from the rear under cornering, did a search and isolated a quick test for the UJs. Yep I have 2mm of play in one of my UJs. Ineteresting clonking under extreme roundabout speed. The question is I was planning a long trip this weekend, should I go? I'm thinking not. The UJs seem to be HUGE (1986 350I FHC with A frame rear ) and have a grease nipple. Now I heard there are many different types - do I have to disaasemble to make a measurement? or is the nipple enough to satisfy (oo-er). -Jim

Are you sure it's a u.j.? Sometimes easy to mix up play in the joints with wheel bearing wear if you're rocking the wheel. Normally when the UJ's are shot you get a clunk when taking up the drive, and sometimes a constant squeak. Can you actually feel play in the joint, rather than at the wheel?
The joints themselves are identified by the outside diameter of the cap, and the distance between opposite cap ends. You should be able to measure in situ. My HS/GKN list says that HS166 / HS 163 (which from memory are the smaller of the Wedge sizes) is 27mm cap dia. and 81.80 across the joint. The former is heavy duty, and both have grease nipples. The larger size which I have on the 400 are 30.20mm cap dia and 106.30mm across the joints.

7.

[jchase]

Fantastic, many thanks. Definately the UJ, I removed the wheel, with car jacked up, put the handbrake on , put jack under the bearing carrier, and tried to move the wheel hub- you can actually see the UJ moving by 2mm its as if there are no needles inside it all!

-Jim

[jmorgan]

From experience I found it easier to take the offending item down the supplier and ask for one of them please. Heavy duty and with a grease nipple. Just the yoke and two caps If possible.

[Number 7]

BTW, its always best to replace both joints at the same time, as they're fairly cheap, and to avoid having to remove that drivesahft again in a few months.

7.

[jchase]

Well, mine measure 30.05 x 105.7 so I guess they are the beefy 400 ones. Are these the HS166 ?

-Jim

[jchase]

Ah, Found the details now:

HS163, HS166 are 27 x 81.8
HS179 is 30.188 x 106.35

-Jim

[adam quantrill]

Jim,

you can still drive on the thing for a couple of hundread miles, just try not to brake too hard (i.e. come off the throttle rather than brake late).

However if the spider eats through the bearing cap and damages the yoke, the replacement will obviously be much more expensive.

I did this once back in the early 90's, the spider was eaten through half way and the cap had disintegrated on one side. Barnet TVR centre said it was the worst case they ever saw!!! I upgraded the whole lot to the 400 size and the problem went away.

Incidentally the outer ones usually go first, in fact the inners usually last as long as two outers. The culprit seems to be water ingress, so keep greasing!!!