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Changing drive shafts

harbourseal

Renault R4 Lunatic
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1,045
Location
Breda The Netherlands
Because of a strange thing happening to one of the driveshafts of my F6 I changed them today.

The other day after I had to avoid an other car that made a sudden brake maneuver My F 6 started to shudder like mad. At a speed of 50kph My teeth rattled out of my mouth:o
I was close to home so I made the choice to ride it out at 30kph.

In the last turn to my house I heard a soft plop and the shuddering was gone.

That night I ordered new driveshafts from Mister auto.
They arrived last Thursday. Today was the day for putting them in.
For the members that did not tackle this job before here is a small report with pics to illustrate it.

First undo the nut that holds the driveshaft to the wheel assembly and undo al the wheel nuts at the front.
Jack up the front and put the car on blocks and remove the wheels.

Undo the brake assembly leave the brake hose attached to the brake assembly and hang it out of the way. don't let the assembly hang by itself from the brake hose. I have Girling brakes, but most R4 with disk brakes have the Bendix type. so no pictures of undoing these.

After removing the brake assembly you are left with the bare wheel assembly. withe the brake disk still on
Remove all the nuts you can find. drive shaft nut (24mm) top and lower balljoint nut (17mm and 19mm)
and the steering balljoint nut (17mm)
IMG_2688.JPG

Then the tricky bit undoing all the ball joints.
I use a Balljoint splitter.
You can do it with a hammer if you are brave.
IMG_2686.JPG

If you undid all the balljoints you need to be care full that the whole thing isn't coming down with a crash.
Today I had a friend helping me. He held the driveshaft in place at the gearbox while I undid the wheel assembly from the driveshaft and the lower wishbone.

IMG_2693.JPG
IMG_2689.JPG
After that we worked in unison. I had made a wad of a piece of cloth and put that in a plastic bag.
The wad needs to be about 3cm in diameter. It is to plug the hole in the gearbox once you remove the driveshaft. So the oil doesn't end up all over the workshop floor.

If you look at the picture above you can see a bronze washer. Be careful not to lose it.
It either falls of and ends up underneath something or it stays glued to the head of the drive shaft invisible underneath a layer of grease.
IMG_2690.JPG
The broze washer prevents the driveshaft from rattling and wear if you are going round a corner I am told. So it needs to be there.

After all this, it is working your way back in the reverse order to put in the new shafts.
IMG_2691.JPG

In all it is about an hour of work that is easily done by yourself.
 
So trouble making job but actually very simple task.

Biggest issue is removing ball joints.

And put something under gearbox as might lost some oil from it when removing driveshaft.

I did not know what that ring was for.......i learned something today.


Nice tutorial harbourseal
 
Harbourseal what's the quality like of the Mr Auto shafts ?
 
They look fine. The ones I got are the same as the old ones.
I might have the old ones refurbished if possible.
But I have to find a company that does refurbish drive shafts.
Time will tell if Bolk is as good as the real thing.
 
so what exactly made it rattle & then go silent again?was it the tulip-joint that came loose due to slack in the tin-lock ring
before joint popped back into place again? Crucial that the "ears" on this locking-ring inside the rubber-boots are not bent
outward as they tend to if you are not careful when pulling shaft out If meant to be used again Or by genarl wear&tear.-R.
 
I lost that bronze/ brass ring. Anyone know where I can get one from?
 
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