Dismantling the drive shafts

I had an hour to spare today, so I dived into the garage and set about taking the drive shafts apart. The bolts holding on the stub axles (I think that’s what they are called!) proved a bit more difficult to remove than those holding the differential flanges on. After liberal amounts of WD40 I mounted them in the vice, and tapped the torx socket home to make sure it had as much purchase as it could. Using a surprising amount of force on a breaker bar, the bolts each released with a clunk, and then were easy to remove. Only one proved troublesome, and rounded off the torx socket, so I will be taking advantage of the Halfords Advanced Range lifetime guarantee, and getting a new socket today.

I used a pair of pliers to remove the metal ties from the small end of the gaiters, and then located the circlips at each end of the driveshafts . After 20 minutes of surgery, where a third hand would have been useful, I removed the circlips and slid the driveshafts out, one needing a little ‘persuasion’ with a mallet.

The condition of the shafts is not too bad, but I want to paint them and get them looking good as new after they have are shortened, so they are currently undergoing the same electrolysis cleaning that the font uprights did.