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Slight knocking on hard acceleration, under load, and going round a long right hand bend???? Is it left hand drive shaft????

Gsouthee

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Hi as above I get a slight knocking if accelerating hard :whistle: or have a load in rear, and if going round a long right hander.

I seems to drive train related as the speed alters with the change in gears. It is ok if accelerating away slowly and gentle on throttle. It is not engine noise.

It seems to come form front left hand side, I thought it may have been the exhaust knocking on the body/mounting but cant see a problem.

I have a pull and push of the drive shaft but nothing obvious. How do you check if it is a drive shaft?? not being a previous front wheel drive owner.

Car is a 1982 4 GTL.

Cheers for any advice

Gary
 
(Without seeing the car) I'd be tempted to say you have a worn universal or C.V. joint. The joints are unique to front wheel drive vehicles (rear wheel drive cars don't need them) and the joints allow power to be delivered to the wheels as the car goes round a corner. Over time these joints can wear out and there's a "rough and ready" way of diagnosing this. Firstly, find an empty car park......

Put the car on full right hand lock and accelerate hard. Then do the same with the car on full left hand lock. If the noise is worse on one lock then the other, my suspicions would be stronger.... If the noise is worse on the RIGHT hand lock, then it's the LEFT side joint that's worn, and vice versa. Other things suggesting a worn C.V. joint is to check the rubber seal that encloses the joint; if it's split or damaged the grease escapes and the joint dries out, causing it to wear prematurely.

These thoughts are only thoughts and are made without seeing the car, but it sounds likely!

(I have family in Hawkinge-I think it's quite near you!)
 
Cheers Andrew

Will try late pm when our village supermarket shuts.




Is it the tunbridge hawkhinge or the Folkestone one.

G
 
Folkstone, near the tunnel at the end of the M20 road. Didn't know there were 2 Hawkinges!
 
Hi well it seems that it is the Left hand side and by the sound of it the outer cv thingy. Oh bugger was going to take Irma to France for a fortnight, might now have to take the Wife's modern!!!!.:(

I understand from the Haynes manual that the Driveshaft needs changing in its entirety, are they available for 1981 GTL.

Also I live in Kent is there anywhere that can be recommend to do this job, as it seems I would need a couple of tools that I do not hold.

I did ask my local old boys village garage and they said they could not do it.

I am happy to travel a bit to get this done.

And if anyone knows someone who could it this week even better:laughing:.

Cheers Gary
 
I'm on holiday at the moment, so don't have access to my contacts book (still use an old address book for car contacts!) If you can hang on for a few days (maybe end of the week!?) I'll be back & will make some calls. I used to know a place that refurbished them & remember using them to refurbish a couple of shafts for an ancient Citroën I was repairing.
 
Dam now my head hurts, found EU spares that can supply these but there must be at least a dozen different ones that all allegedly fit my car????

Here's the linkEU Spares Drivshafts

I suppose I will need to take mine off to see what I have got?

Gary
 
Just ordered. Also found earlier thread re doing it without special tools. But what about pulling it back in, or will it just slide on?



Cheers
 
Cheers Andy and others for input. All done easy peasy (nearly except for whacking my finger). No special tools needed!

Now off to France at weekend, see if I can see any other R4's about.



Gary
 
Great, well done! Let us know how many you see :)
 
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