Hi, I have a have sierra 5 speed going on a Kent 1600 in New Zealand. In new Zealand at least the drive shafts on a Sierra 2 litre have a large rubber donnut directly behind th egear box which will not be sutiable for use. Can any one suggest a sutiable drive shaft to alter to connect the Sierra box to a Escort diff. I have the Escort drive shaft.

Thanks

Very early Sierras don't have the donut. Failing that, try a Capri. I think the gearbox shaft is the same.

Chris

aparently, transit vans have the right front end.

or, do the safe thing and get a custom prop made. mine was 123 pounds plus vat in the uk.

if you grovel to a custom prop mfr, perhaps they will sell you the part you need.

the only luxury on my whole damn car that was 'out of the box' was the prop shaft......


atb

steve

[Edited on 3/12/03 by stephen_gusterson]

sherpa vans had the same front end as well i,m told,mine was from an escort mk2 auto

[Edited on 3/12/03 by theconrodkid]

Not sure about Sherpa - they were Leyland weren't they? but the ford transit was the one to get to replace the donut when I built my robin hood, although I'm pretty sure I got a cortina or granada propshaft from a scrappy to mate to the back end of my sierra prop.

silly question, but why can't the rubber donut be used? is it just that it's too big?
would a prop manufacturer cut the donut off the front shaft thingy and fit a u'j instead to fit the prop and then a u'j at 'tother end to cnnect to dif?

Ned.

no, thats a good question ned!

AFAIK two reasons :

1. Its wider than a simple UJ by quite a bit and may not fit the tunnel - it would have fitted mine but then there is ....


2. the suggestion is its more of a damper than a rubber uj. on my car the diff is fixed so there is no rear axle movement or flex to cope with, but the prop has a mild downward angle - i didnt fancy stressing the prop and getting impaled on it.

On a std live axle locost, the prop will move about and will flex the joint, so it may propmpt it to fail.

so, without any data to say it was 'ok' to kep the donut, I used a std UJ

atb

steve

both steve,s points are right,thats why they are not used

quote:

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Originally posted by stephen_gusterson
it would have fitted mine but then there is ....


2.

---

I keep it in mind not to say that

But, if you are worried, I could add it to my sig, and it would appear on almost 2,700 posts, so people would get the message (and blame you!)






atb

steve

On the Sierra's Henry ford used 3 (YES 3 ) types of front coupling.

1. Rubber donut .... most common and cheapest.

2. Spicer U. J. ...... more expensive than above, scarce but used when supplies ran out of above.

3. C. V. (Constant Velocity as in drive shafts) ...... very expensive and only used when supplies of both the above had run out completely.

So it is unfortunately just a matter of looking around for a suitable alternative.


Enjoy.

In the donut sierra, the drive runs in a straight line from the gearbox, through the rubber coupling and then to a fixed bearing. Then there was a uj between the bearing and the diff. The donut is a drive shock-absorber rather than a uj. There were a lot of problems in the early sierra based robin hoods because the angle of the box and the run to the diff are not straight - there were some real horror stories of rubber couplings failing and loose drive shafts flailing around inside the tunnel. I saw one that had made the square section tunnel into a round section - and that was with a steel monocoque tunnel. It wouldn't be very nice next to your leg in a thinly clad tunnel.