I think iv got a broken universal joint.

nzoomed, Jun 8, 6:10am
On my FWD vehicle, was doing a u-turn, full lock and thud!
I drove down to the lights without any problems, but when the light's went green, the car was free wheeling and sounded like a tractor!
I hope its nothing serious and only needs the Maltese crosses replaced.

skin1235, Jun 8, 6:13am
chances are you'll need a new CV, or at least a new cross, balls, cage, and spring ring

nzoomed, Jun 8, 6:41am
ive replaced them before, but never have never had to do a damaged one, the cv joints are OK, just a universal, it still will free wheel in park, so can assume a universal has gone.

mugenb20b, Jun 8, 6:50am
What kind of car is it!

unbeatabull, Jun 8, 7:36am
Wheels will still turn independantly in park. The Parking Prawl only stops both wheels turning together in the same direction. If your in park you can still spin each wheel by itself and even turn them in the opposite direction to each other.

And a Universal on a FWD Car! Curious to know what it is

jmma, Jun 8, 7:42am
Some sort of BMC, Mini perhaps (o:

supernova2, Jun 8, 8:02am
Not likely to be a mini as its auto.

a.woodrow, Jun 8, 8:17am
They made auto minis ya know

jmma, Jun 8, 8:50am
I guess this is the clue to BMC (o:

jmma, Jun 8, 8:51am
40 hrs was the standard time in the book to overhaul these (o:

mugenb20b, Jun 8, 8:53am
40 hours is how long it might take OP to return to this thread to provide some more info.

supernova2, Jun 8, 9:57am
Yes I know they did make auto mini 1000s but when did you last see one of those on the road.The 40hrs to o'haul sounds about right to me, only problem would be that you had to do it again about every 40hrs of running.I had a 1300 auto station wagon once.It had two sets of marks on the dipstick a la a borg warner type stick.The difference between the two sets of marks was 10 liters.Borrowed a stick from another auto 1300 and put a 3rd set of marks in the right place.Why on earth would anyone think they should add 10ltrs of oil to a 1300 engine!Mind you it did leak about 10ltrs a week!

nzoomed, Jun 9, 2:08am
lol is that what BMC mechanics called them!

supernova2, Jun 9, 8:48am
I struck that problem once with an 1800.Some idiot had set up both front hubs with end float (like a conventional taper bearing) and the shafts had machined the splines out of the hubs.We machined a bit off the CV joint, or outa back of hub can't remember which now but it allows the hub to engage what little spline was left, and filed the hub with green loctite.Drove hub onto CV with a sledge hamer, torqued up the nuts, left it overnight and 30,000Km later was still holding.You might have same problem.

jmma, Jun 9, 9:00am
Some of us called them Drive couplings (o:

nzoomed, Jun 9, 10:14am
I hope not, either way, i will replace the whole shaft and everything if that is the case. Am yet to dismantle it, but the whole shaft turns freeley right up to the CV joint itself, so i dont think the spline has gone in this case, I do know what you are referring to as the internal spline in the shaft itself!
It has a little boot half way along the shaft, as far as im aware, this was designed to allow it to telescope with any movement such as bumps along the road etc.

supernova2, Jun 9, 12:30pm
Not the halfway spline but the spline in the hub on the outer of the cv.Are you saying the in your case the shaft is turning but the cv and hub are not!In that case it must had stripped the spline inside the cv.

Sounds like your idea of replace the lot would be a good one.I hope you have a spare 'cause I doubt you will find many bits for a BMC 1800 these days.Just to complicate things its likely that the auto 1800 and the manual 1800 had different shafts - I know the 1300 did.

a.woodrow, Jun 9, 1:04pm
Have a mate with an auto mini, 850cc of raw power.

nzoomed, Jun 9, 11:23pm
Yes id say that the manual models are different, we own several 1800's and the one manual model we have has a rubber drive coupling instead of the usual universal joints, the outers on both models would be the same, but the inners would be a different story.
If the spline has stripped like you say, then it makes me wonder if its been put together wrongly by a mechanic in the past, im about to go and remove a CV unit off an australian assembled 1800, hopefully there are no differences on the aussie models.

nzoomed, Jun 11, 8:12am
Started removing it today, could very well be the spline at fault, will be interesting to see what its like inside, will post some photos when i get it out.

skin1235, Jun 14, 5:30am
so it's back to post 2 then!. lol

but reality is that by the time the race, cage, and balls have been rattling around loose for a while the barrel is stuffed too
New CV more likely result

nzoomed, Jun 14, 7:36am
LoL, yes, it turned out to be the CV, for whatever reason i had it in my mind that it was the universal making the noise, but am forgetting that universals dont move when turning!
When it broke it made the most horrible thud when doing a U-turn!
Yes im going to replace the whole CV, ive got a press, so i should be able to easily press off the wheel bearings and swap the CV over with another good one, there is a place that rebuilds the old ones too, so i will keep my old one as a spare.