by Boghopper » Tue Apr 17, 2018 4:53 pm
Yes, it does work. The O/S driveshaft comes out easy just loosen the intermediate bearing housing and the wishbone ball-joint end and it will just pull out. I didn't even undo the outer driveshaft/wheel bearing nut. Anyway, once the O/S driveshaft is out the way you can peer into the gearbox and see the end of the driveshaft. You can only hit it at about the '11 o'clock' position, if I remember correctly as there is a metal pin obscuring the rest of the driveshaft end. You need a strauight piece of bar (mild steel) as you don't want a brittle steel as the ends can chip and drop into the gearbox. Mild steel is soft and will just bruise, rather than chip. Just make sure it is straight/true and around 3/4"/ 6mm diameter and about 14" long. Make sure you seat it nicely on the exposed part of the driveshaft you can see through the hole and give it a smart blow. Mine didn't just pop out, I had to keep on tapping it out bit by bit, whilst turning it through a quarter a turn a few times. Anyway, it was out after five minutes, after I had spent hours and hours using bars/ levers etc from the N/S. Do you have a pit or anything? Because you will need to look through the gearbox with a torch to see the end of the shaft and place the drift correctly. I don't think this would be possible lying on your back, or on car ramps.
If I was having to do another N/S driveshaft again. I would try to do it by pulling/levers for a few minutes only, I wouldn't bother wasting hours and hours on it. I would drift it through from the other side again and not mess about.