Firstly any replies to this please don't abbreviate my username to IS.... I don't fancy any early morning wake up calls from the powers that 'know everything'.
I'm about to remove the driveshaft from my doner car(76 gt) to see if I can swap donuts if they're any good onto my other gt(1975). It's middle donut has one quarter of it missing! What I would like to know is if the doner ones are ok and they're compatible to car no.2 is there a good chance it'll work , or should I not bother?
Any advice is always much appreciated.
Buddy you obviously have no idea what you are in for !! :)
You are about to undertake one of the most arduous tasks on this type of car for and experiment ?? !!
In a word. DON'T.
If you want to carry out some maintenance fair enough. Source all the parts you need first and then proceed to do the job because believe you me, by the time you finish this job as a novice, you will be wondering what all that hair on the floor is that resembles the stuff that used to live on your own cranium.
Finally 1976/75 rubber couplings are well and truly passed their used by date-doesn't matter what they look like. It is a futile exercise. In any case you should replace ALL the couplings at the same time given the age of this vehicle. All the links in this daisy chain of couplings have to have the same integrity.
Now go and have a beer and think it over.. :)
+1 to what MD has said.
If you have driven the car and have not noticed drivetrain vibration, then you need to mark and/or index all donuts and the two tail shafts. use a marker or whiteout pen for this. The tail hafts and spider flange have to go back in the same orientation to each other. Use this practice whether your car is an Alfetta, Giulietta, 75 or GTV6. Search for member Shinycar in this forum, he's done this on a 3.0l V6 75. He has put up images of all driveline components. He has also indexed all nuts and bolts. Very thorough!
If you end up changing the original alignment of the 2 tail shafts you will end up with vibrations.
Cheers
Yes it is fine to swap propellar shafts :)
Md is on the money...just do all the donuts and centre bearing at the same time save you having to do the same job 3 times. get it done by an expert. I had my tailshaft 'balanced' and it's never been the same since I agree with the above notion only balance if it vibrates the donuts are perishable parts and need to be changed once they crack and fall apart.
Believe me do this, I've had a very reputable alfa mechanic (won't mention any names) that they 'forgot' to mark my tail shaft before disassembling. My car was dead smooth, all my car needed was a new clutch so I thought while I was there I'll replace the donuts. Got the car back and it was vibrating like crazy, all because they 'forgot' to mark everything. As you could imagine was not impressed.