Race Engine Forum UK

My split (2-piece) Fiat Mirafiori/132 propshaft (hooked up to standard 2-litre Fiat twin cam) is currently making clonking noises and I believe this to be down to the worn rubber centre propshaft mount.

I've seen a replacement for £40, but I was wondering if anyone knows of a superior alternative to the standard Fiat item? They look a little on the flimsy side, being of largely rubber construction, and my local Fiat dealer no longer lists them, so a more readily available part would be handy to know about.

I know of know alternative but to send/take the whole thing here for overhaul:

http://www.propshaft-services.co.uk

I just rang them, let me know how you get on.

GC

You may want to check the rubber bushings in the 4 trailing arms that locate the rear axle also.
When these are worn or falling apart they can make a very similar clunk as a bad drive shaft rubber "donut" or bad rubber center bearing carrier.
Tom

Thanks for the advice. My car (Morris Minor) doesn't have the 4-link rear axle of a Fiat Supermirafiori, just the engine, gearbox and propshaft out of one! It has an MGB axle out back, 'located' on leaf springs.

You should maybe talk to Propshaft Services and ask them if you could just run a one-piece prop.

G

After a rummage in the garage I had a spare so I have given it to Maurice to get him out of trouble

Jeff

Thanks to Jeff for sending this - much appreciated!

I like the idea of using a one-piece prop (like the Minor is originally), but have heard they are noisier for some reason, also the angle between the end of the Fiat gearbox and the MGB back axle is fairly steep, which may cause the UJ to wear rapidly - though I may of course be quite wrong on this!

Well, I had a look last night, and the propshaft mount on my car has cracked rubber and waggling the propshaft side-to-side, it moves about quite alarmingly - about half an inch or so to each side! I have a spare propshaft with a better condition (no cracks) mount and did the same test - same result. Is this normal for these?

This is the part I'm on about, not the doughnut:

I discovered that the clonking was in fact due to the close proximity of the rubber doughnut against the side of the transmission tunnel, which in a Minor, is quite narrow. It was free to spin normally without touching, but under load, it would just catch the metal edge of the doughnut - not good.

So, today I removed the gearbox cover and cut away the section that was contacting, so I hope this will solve the problem. While the gearbox was exposed, I replaced the duff reverse light switch with a working spare and wired it to ignition controlled live, so I can later easily fit a reversing lamp :)

Mine clears the tunnel, no chopping req'd. Got a nasty diff rumble tho :-(

I've gone over to single propshaft, two UJs and don't have any odd noises. Seems a more elegant solution and means you don't need the big cutout out of the transmission tunnel