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Q & A: Front Universal Joint of '55 MGTF

John -
I spoke with you a few weeks ago to ask for your advice. The front
universal joint on my '55 MGTF suddenly took it upon itself to begin to
thump against the transmission hump. It didn't happen regularly, sometimes
it did it when in neutral between shifts, sometimes when accelerating, and
it generally did it all the time when my wife was in the car. At the same
time, the transmission began a nasty habit of slipping out of 3rd gear
whenever I let up on the throttle. I had visions of everything from the
drive shaft coming up through the floorboards to the transmission
disintegrating into pieces.
You suggested that I tighten the output flange nut and gave me good
instructions on how to go about accessing the nut, and tightening the
bolt.
The whole operation took just a few hours (including fashioning a bar to
bolt across the flange for torque). As soon as I dropped the drive shaft
and pulled the cotter pin, I found the nut would spin freely. A quick
torque with a wrench, refastened the drive shaft, and it was done. Since
the nut was a castle nut with a good pin still in place, I never would
have
imagined that it would loosen up and it would have been the last place I
would have looked to fix something.

Last night, I took my wife for a test drive. You're a genius! It
worked!
The noise is gone!

Thanks very much for your help - Now, I still need to figure out the
problem with 3rd gear.....

Ernie Crabtree

Ernie! I thought that the loose nut might improve the "falling out of gear"
problem. Good luck!

John... read more