I recently had a problem with my drive shaft joints cracking when turning & after expert advice from Baz I decided to replace them myself.
However having looked at the manual & because the hub has to be removed to change the drive joints I also replaced the following parts on both sides. Lower suspension arms complete with bushes & ball joints.
Track rod ends.
Antiroll bar links.
King pin bearings & seals.From a well known bearing supplier.NOT Nissan
Gearbox to driveshaft bearings & seals
Driveshaft outer joints & Rubber gaitor.
Wheel hub bearings & retaining circlips & grease.
All these parts were souced from the internet at a total cost of only £237.60 !!!
It has been a job well worth doing with excellent handling & steering.
The biggest problem I had was with the tightness of the wheel nuts & the lower suspension bolts.
To undo the wheel nuts I machined a 25 mm slot accross the top of the socket & bolted a 25mm square bar to the socket 3ft long then whacked the end of the bar with a copper mallet which unscrewed the nut ok.
The problem with the lower suspension bolts is that the thread passes right thro the cross member & exposes the thread end to the elements ie rust & it is not accessible to wire brush the threads.
I started on the first bolt & it would not shift using a rachet socket so I used a straight bar on the socket together with a piece of long pipe & plus gas,This managed to free the the bolt but it fought me to the end with much creaking & groaning .At this point & with 18 bolts to undo I said S..it
there must be an easier way so I put copper grease on the bolt & put it back in.
I then sprayed all the other bolts with plus gas & left it for 2 days then took the car to my local tyre supplier to have the wheels balanced & whilst it was up on the ramp they very kindly removed all 18 bolts & copper greased them & put them back in.They charged me £5 for this but still had to use a pipe to free the bolts & broke one socket & bent the socket bar.
The bolts came out easy when I replaced the lower arm.
The next problem was removing the lower arm bush pin ,This was stuck fast
& as it is held in position by a keyway slot the only way to remove it was to press it out with a hydraulic press.It cannot be turned to free it because it is keyed.
I hope this helps anyone attempting the same.
Many thanks to Baz for his expert advice & NPOC for the manual.
Best Regards
Popswoo
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