Technical Central bearing propshaft Cross 2015
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Technical Central bearing propshaft Cross 2015
petebarchetta
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I too am in same boat, recent service has called out propshaft is fubarred due to the bushing / bearing. What part did you order??
https://www.fiatforum.com/threads/4x4-prop-shaft-mounting.510864/
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Harvie
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Full propshaft
Fiat Panda Propshaft 4x4 (169) 2004-ON 55222107 55193595 55197051 55264146 | eBay
OE Numbers: 55193595, 55197051, 55222107, 55264146, 0055264146, 0055197051, 0055193595, 0055222107. PANDA MK 2 HATCH (169). 169 A4.000. 1.3 D Multijet 4x4. 169 A1.000; 169 A5.000. PANDA VAN (169_). PANDA VAN (312_, 519_).
www.ebay.co.uk
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I fitted mine, on my own, in just over an hour. Plus probably 20 minutes or so to get the car up on axle stands.
Is there any chance you could just briefly describe the process? I'm about to try the same thing, sounds a lot simpler than what I've read else where and obviously you've done it! Thanks, Nik
Get the car up on four axle stands, highest setting. I used slotted pucks on the seam weld jacking points for the stands and jacked the car up on the lower arm bolt mounting points at the front and the diff at the rear.
Remove the bolts holding the central bearing cover and then the bolts holding the centre bearing. The centre of the prop will hang down a bit at this point but that’s not a problem.
Engage a high gear, 4th or 5th. Remove the hex bolts and spacers from the front end of the prop. You may need to take it out of gear and spin the shaft slightly to get at all of them, useful to have someone to put it in/out of gear for you. Get hold of it before you remove the last bolt and lower it to the ground.
Repeat for the rear diff end, lower to the ground and drag it out.
If you are not replacing the bolts (I didn’t), make sure you use threadlock when replacing the bolts and after cleaning them. Don’t forget the spacers. Refit the centre bearing and cover last. Take it for a run to make sure you don’t have a balance problem.
Buy the replacement prop-shaft from Des Shelly shafts in the Midlands if you want a trouble free fit. Buy from ebay if you want to roll the dice…
Remove the bolts holding the central bearing cover and then the bolts holding the centre bearing. The centre of the prop will hang down a bit at this point but that’s not a problem.
Engage a high gear, 4th or 5th. Remove the hex bolts and spacers from the front end of the prop. You may need to take it out of gear and spin the shaft slightly to get at all of them, useful to have someone to put it in/out of gear for you. Get hold of it before you remove the last bolt and lower it to the ground.
Repeat for the rear diff end, lower to the ground and drag it out.
If you are not replacing the bolts (I didn’t), make sure you use threadlock when replacing the bolts and after cleaning them. Don’t forget the spacers. Refit the centre bearing and cover last. Take it for a run to make sure you don’t have a balance problem.
Buy the replacement prop-shaft from Des Shelly shafts in the Midlands if you want a trouble free fit. Buy from ebay if you want to roll the dice…
I shall be ordering a propshaft from Des Shelley next week and have booked in at The Fiat Worksop for them to fit it (they too reckon an hour’s labour)… I don’t really have the facilities to do it at home, and it will go for an MOT at the same time.
A year ago the rubber support looked ‘lightly cracked’. I was rather horrified to see a couple of weeks back that it now looks like this….(photo below). Only done around 4,000 miles in the past year as using the Defender more than I expected to. (I had no indication from driving it that the support had failed - no clonks, extra noise or vibrations. Only found out after looking under the car.)
A year ago the rubber support looked ‘lightly cracked’. I was rather horrified to see a couple of weeks back that it now looks like this….(photo below). Only done around 4,000 miles in the past year as using the Defender more than I expected to. (I had no indication from driving it that the support had failed - no clonks, extra noise or vibrations. Only found out after looking under the car.)
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Thanks for all the great advice here, has anyone split the propshaft and just installed the bearing? Cheers, Nik
Thanks, I'm going to explore just replacing the bearing - any experience on that?
Have a read of this older thread. Apparently it can be done, but takes a lot of effort. Crucial to make alignment marks too so the splines fit back exactly as they were (to maintain the balance and avoid vibration)
https://www.fiatforum.com/threads/panda-4x4-propshaft-bearing.495473/
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The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Not good its gone quite quickly after your original post. How many miles have you now done?
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Useful to know. I shall keep an eye on mone. Im only 26K but 6 years old and its a rubber thing.... Keep us posted on your job please.
Yes, I did it on our 4x4 climbing 169 and am going to do it on the 169 cross…
I drove it up wide motorhome leveling ramps on just one side
Marked one bolt hole on each end of shaft, removed prop (20min job) marked the prop, which I realised I didn’t need to do as one spline/slot is ever so slightly bigger so it only went one way
Split the prop with a slide hammer, stiff at first but soon lost the battle
I had to cut the old bearing off as that was a complete ‘b’
clean off matting surfaces and I put coppaslip on
Wehn tapping the new bearing on be very careful to ensure you get it square, it’s pretty robust but you don’t want to damage the two ‘washer like’ bearing dust covers
Assembly is just the reverse of removal
About an hours job with two brews and a couple of rollies
It was not mentioned at last year’s MOT (in early May) but commented as ‘one to watch’ by Fiat Workshop at same time. That was at 53,000 miles. Now on 57,000. My mileage has dropped considerably in past five years (left work and driving shared with other vehicles). I wonder if lower use makes a difference? Car was ‘pre-reg’d’ by dealer in May 2018 and sat ‘unused’ until I got it at start August 2018… might that have had any effect?
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
I wonder if its just something with a life of around 50K. Annoying whatever.
You are a bloody star!
You can gain a little insight from this post too… https://www.fiatforum.com/threads/panda-4x4-how-to-replace-centre-bearing.432911/
And from here (different car, same process)
My lack of workshop with big nice and slide hammer puts this beyond my capabilities…
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