Drive shaft length

Problem sorted. The right hand shaft was installed in the car (but no motor yet). So the end of this shaft was inside the hub and CV so not possible to measure right to the end. The left hand shaft was not installed. However I didn't realise that the difference in lengths was so great. I was expecting that it might be about an inch or so. But even not being able to account for the length of the right hand shaft inside the hub/cv it is still obvious that the shaft that has not been installed was the shorter of the two ie the left hand one.

I guess this means that at some time there must have been some water inside both of the pot joints to cause that amount of corrosion

Do you have the left hand driveshaft installed in the car?  I don't understand your predicament.  If you have both of the driveshafts in hand, can't you just hold one up next to the other and see which one is shorter?  The difference in size is significant enough that you can see easily which one is shorter.

"Retired:  No Job, No Money, No Wife!  Will travel anywhere for Minis"

hockey91dad@hotmail.com

When I removed the pot joints, drive shaft assembly, etc from the 1275 about a year or so ago there was quite a lot of water inside the pot joint on the right hand side. I emptied it out and didn't think any more about it and put it into storage for when I needed it for the rebuild of the Elf. So about a month ago built up the right hand side of the car with new bearings, discs, cvs, recon. metro 4 pots, etc and a nicely powder coated drive shaft. I clearly remember that it was the right hand pot joint that was full of water when I removed it. But when I rebuilt the right hand side the drive shaft was in good condition.

So, this weekend I got on with rebuilding the left hand side. I removed the pot joint from the drive shaft and found that the splines on the drive shaft were badly corroded. So, due to the power I plan to put through them, now I need to get a new driveshaft. Only problem is that the fact there was water in the right hand pot joint makes me think that I might have somehow mixed up the drive shafts. I know that the left hand drive shaft is shorter than the right hand one, but I really don't want to have to strip the right hand side down again to compare the 2 drive shafts.

Can anyone tell me the length of the right hand and left hand drive shafts please, so I know which one I need to replace?