So back to the 1973 1.7 FI car where I just took care of the first gear issue. The driver side axle assembly to the mounting point on the flange coming off the transmission receded perfectly. The driver side, however, it did not. When I removed it it was not flush and the prior owner/prior mechanic had put sealant around to close up the gap.

I cleaned all of that sealant off and despite using the correct amount of torque on the bolts it won’t sit flush/fully made where the flange in the CV are supposed to come together.

Are there differences between the years-I’m wondering if I have a missed matched axle assembly for the flange that is on the car maybe? OR, could there be did Paris or something else preventing that fit? I’m reluctant to try even more torque for stripping the bolts or the threads on the flange.

Any ideas or experience pass on?

Thanks!

A CV gasket belongs in that gap.

Hi Chris, thanks for the fast response. The gap I’m left with is thicker than the individual gaskets. Sorry for not making that clear in the original post.

All model years used the same parts. If the face of the CV joint won't make good flat contact with the face of the output flange then there is a raised surface on one of the faces or the flange is distorted.
The only other thing I can think of offhand is if you tightened one side of the joint too much at first, the other side might not clamp down properly.

I have seen where the roll pins or the holes the roll pins go in are damaged and the roll pins don't seat all the way in. In the cases I saw the CV had a gap on one side where the bunged up roll pin was and made contact on the other side.

If it won't seat flush something is in the way.

Jim

First of all-thank you both for the responses. @ChrisFoley , once things calm down and I with all the cars down to the ones I’m gonna focus on I’ll be ordering some of your shifter parts. They look exceptionally well done.

I was pretty careful to tighten the bolts evenly in a crisscross pattern to make sure it melted up flashlight, excellent tip however and I’ll make sure to be diligent about continuing to do that for the consideration you raised.

@jcd914 - I think you nailed it. My hunch is that the pin on the current axle is damaged or out of shape. It’s not seated on two separate flanges. I’m going to put another known to be good axle in today and see if that takes care of it.

The pins can be pulled out and replaced. I have a few good used pins here.

@ChrisFoley - just finished swapping out the axle and the old one was indeed messed up. Not only was the joint not working smoothly but one of the roll pins had some sort of burr/ridge on it that stopped it from seating properly. Got the replacement one on and with the correct paper gasket it all fits like it should. Thanks

@Chi-town - Quick shout out to Dylan here also for both the replacement axle and for some last minute coaching on getting everything set up properly. Thank you!