When I came home I checked things out and found my front prop splines worn on the male end.
Finally getting around to working on it and found this; all 88-109 front props are the same, part # STC1898. There is a replacement male spline section available part #601790, I only found that on Rovah Farm.
I pulled the shaft and had a go at replacing the splined section. First I tried to grind off the weld but that was too difficult to see what I was exposing. I was looking for the inner wall of the tube section at it's longest point.
So I used a cutoff wheel and removed the splined section.
Then I carefully ground down the remaining flange part of the spline, hoping to find the tube walls. This took maybe an hour and a half to 2 hours, I didn't really keep track of time, but......
Finally I got to it this morning. However I'm not satisfied with my results, more on that later.
Once I knew I had ground through the weld and found the side walls I had to remove the rest of the insert. That wasn't easy either. I finally welded a 1/2" rod to the insert and with some hammering and wiggling and brute(me?) strength I got it out!
Here is the layout of the splined shaft bits;
OK, Why don't I like what I did?;
Although I tried to keep the grinding to a minimum, a lot was dependent upon the weld. One side of my grinding job came out 4mm shorter that the other. While I know that can be made up with careful alignment when welding in the new spline I am not comfortable with the balance issue of the shaft with all this extra weld on one side. On the other hand I could have squared off the tube by grinding down the high side, but would this have left the tube too short? I don't know.
So I bit the bullet and ordered a new one from Trevor at Rovah Farm.
Well the new shaft came in, it is Britpart.
I thought it might be for that price. What I din't expect was that it has been redesigned and didn't look like my old one or the sale picture on the websites. I can see why it was redesigned, it looks cheaper to make. I hope it isn't a cheaper version of materials..........................time will tell.
I freaked out a bit and called Trevor, fired off an email to him and checked another half dozen website to see if the number was correct. It was and eventually I decided to just put it in.
First I took the slide apart and saw that there was very little grease on only 1 part of the splines, so I pumped grease into the splines and the u-joints.
The new is on top, the bottom is a rear but shows the old design.
Then I got out a piece of old carpet threw it on the mud and rocks in my drive and put it in.
In the rain. I was worried the sliding section would hit the crossmember, but it looks like it will clear everything.
I got soaked from the naval down and there was a drip hitting me on the forehead while I did the front bolts. It went in just fine.
After cleaning up Trevor called and informed me of the design change, so I could rest easy/er.
A quick drive in 4x4 around the neighborhood and yep, it works.
Thanks Trevor!
