encased driveshaft?

sounds like you're underway. "everyone" hates the torque tubes. it is true its a PITA to pull, but they are crazy reliable, an advantage of being sealed and overbuilt in the first place.

The shaft never changes length inside the tube. Or rather it changes only a small amount, maybe +/- 1/8" (1/4" total). Shaft and tube are same length, and pivot point is virtually the same as well, so no length change except for expansion and contraction from heat/cold.

The double is a bit smoother, but not enough that you are likely to notice. I don't think you can still use the original CV joint yoke, not without some machine work. You might need to find another yoke that will fit. That might be a big problem for you in England.IIRC some other tranny yokes (manual BW trans... AMC and some Ford?) will fit the shaft -- your driveline guy might be able to take some measurements from the yoke and find one.

The main problem with the type CV joint used is that the centering pin and spring that keeps the two joints aligned eventually wears out, mostly from age. That type joint was only used by AMC and Lincoln as far as I can determine, and was only in production 4-5 years. Since AMC used an enclosed drive there was no dust/dirt getting into the joint, so it simply didn't wear out often, so few replacements were necessary. Hard to find now! Blaser's may have a repair kit (consists of pin and spring), but last I heard they were out. Took around 50 years for time to take it's toll on the spring!


Edited by farna - Jul/25/2017 at 7:00am

tomj wrote: if you get all the rubber isolators right the thing will be as smooth and quiet as a new car. those mid-60's torque tube "big cars" (10, 80, 40, 70 series, classics marlins ambassadors, etc) were probably AMCs best products. old Nash quality and some new AMC engineering mixed together.

Amen! I think the 1963-1966 Classic, Ambassador, and Marlin were AMC's best cars. They just ooze quality. The coil spring and latex foam-padded seats are truly remarkable for their quality construction. That is STILL the highest standard of seating construction to this day. 

Well that's definitely a 'why did I start this' type of job.

The interweb has been broken all day, so didn't see the further advice on here until now. But with two trolley jacks, an 80 year old screw jack, several blocks of oak and a lot of cussing, I got it out.
I started by taking the wheels off, in the process I managed to let one end of the axle fall off the jack and dented the rim of the brake drum, so that's the balance messed up. Fortunately my garage floor has plastic tiles otherwise it could have been a lot worse.

With the wheels off I found it too hard to drag the whole caboose backwards, so then I put the wheels on again and was able to pull the tube out of the trans. I did put a sack of sand underneath in case I dropped the tube, but I didn't.
Then I had to take the wheels off again so I could haul the axle out from under the car. I'm getting too old for this stuff.

Haven't tried taking the shaft out of the tube, I'll let the shop do that when I go and see them tomorrow. There seems to be a tiny bit of axial movement at the front of the prop, but I couldn't determine where.

I noticed a problem with the slip joint at the trans. The ground seal surface has a rough line around half the circumference, where the seal sits. I reckon the car has been parked for years with old watery ATF in it, and the water has seeped down to the bottom and corroded the bottom of the running surface.
Maybe that's where the ATF is escaping. In 200 miles it goes from full to off the dipstick. Lucky the water didn't rust the valve block in the trans.

So now that's three jobs to do - the brake drum, sleeve the seal face if possible, and the uj.
We have a saying - 'painting the Forth Bridge' meaning a job that's never finished.
Urrrgh.

Ivor

Well, luckily it's not a job that has to be done often. You might want to replace the u-joints while you have it out even if they aren't the issue. I've pulled 130K u-joints out of torque tubes that were as tight as the day they were put in though, so it's a tough call. The shaft should move around in the end of the tube, it will flex some. Pull the u-joint yoke out and the shaft will rest against the side of the tube -- that's normal. The center bearing stabilizes it at speed, but it's mounted in rubber. The shaft should pull out from the FRONT of the tube. I'd take the tube loose from the rear axle before trying to pull out. You can pry a littl on the tube/axle flange to get the tube and shaft off if necessary. If the tube is rusted a bit inside the shaft will be harder to get out, the bearing stays on the shaft and slides out.

You will need a rear transmission seal too -- that I'd replace unless I knew for sure it had been recently replaced -- and that's likely your trans fluid leak. Is there a drip out of the bell housing? That would be a front seal. If you have a leak there it's best to pull the trans and change it now, while the axle is out, or you get to do it all again. Just unbolt torque converter then drop trans with converter in. You know the rest of the deal, but just in case... pull converter, replace seal, put converter on, jack back in place, bolt up, you're done!


Edited by farna - Jul/27/2017 at 7:52am