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MG MGA - Removing & Replacing driveline

I have a '58 1500 with the single piece drive shaft that has the slide joint in the tail end of the transmission as opposed to the 1600 and later that had the joint about a third of the way back in the drive shaft itself.
My question is, I'm preparing to remove the driveshaft and have new u-joints installed. When replacing the 1500 driveshaft, should the slide joint be lined up in exactly the same splines that it came out of? And if so, I would welcome suggestions on marking the slide joint to be sure that it went back in on the same splines that it came from.
I know this is important on the 1600 and that the two pieces of the driveshaft were marked at the factory with arrows to be sure they were lined up properly but have never seen anything regarding the same subject on the 1500.

Any help?
Thanks Gents,

Clayton
C. Merchant

With the solid drive shaft the U-joints can't be missaligned. It is not necessary to align to any particular spline in the gearbox when installing.
John H

I would concur with John. I do not believe that you have to put the shaft back on the exact same splines. I have removed the drive shaft from my Magnette, which uses the same type you described, several times and I have never attempted to realign the splines exactly the same way they came off and I have never had a problem. I have a 56 A also and I have replaced the u-joints on it without a re-alignment problem. I think you will be fine. I may be being optimistic here, but I would like to think that if the shaft had to go on only one way, they would have made it keyed or offset some of the splines so that it would only go on one way.

Dennis, Az
Dennis

Clayton,

The alignment marks on the 1600 driveshaft are for aligning the two halves of the driveshaft, so that the front and rear U-joints are in the correct angular relationship. It has nothing to do with aligning to gearbox splines.
As John said, the one piece 1500 driveshaft cannot ever have the U-joints missaligned.

Mick
Mick Anderson

Thanks all, that puts my mind at ease and makes perfect sense. I couldn't figure out how someone was supposed to mark the joint as it was being pulled out of the rear of the tranny.

I appreciate your help!

Clayton
C. Merchant

This thread was discussed between 10/05/2006 and 11/05/2006

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