Propshaft phase

[heraldcoupe]

Rebuilding a propshaft for my current Herald project. The shaft is a splined Vitesse or 2000 47" type, or at least I believe it to be, as this Herald has overdrive. The shaft was taken from another Herald in running condition and the splines are in good order without any play.

I noticed something odd as I finished off the UJ at the splined end. Looking down the shaft I could see that the yokes are very slightly out of phase. Not 90 degrees as would obviously give problems, but just a degree or two. I've not tried moving anything around as I believe that displacing the sliding section by even one spline would exceed the size of the discrepancy; I think there is a key spline in any case, which would make a change impossible.

I did a little digging online and found that this slight off-phasing is normal on some vehicles, specifically Landrovers, but I've never been aware of it on a Herald or Vitesse. Does anyone know if this is normal with the splined shafts, or is this shaft from some other source?

Cheers,
Bill.

[marktheherald]

I'll have to pop out to the garage and have a look at mine whilst the car is dismantled..

[heraldcoupe]

I found out why the Landrover front shaft is set out of phase, this apparently works in conjunction with a damper in the shaft. This rang a bell with me, I remember that some of the 2000 propshafts incorporate a damper, IIRC it's those with the overdrive that got this installation, though there was no difference in propshaft length.
Putting 2 + 2 together, it may be the case that Triumph shafts with the damper are deliberately de-phased.

If this theory is correct, I'd expect the Vitesse and non-overdrive 2000 propshaft, which share the same part number, to be perfectly in phase, with just the overdrive 2000 shaft de-phased by a few degrees.

Cheers,
Bill.

[Jonny-Jimbo]

What type damper did they have Bill? I don't knowingly have a shaft damper on my 2000, and that's an OD car?

[heraldcoupe]

Quoted from Jonny-Jimbo

What type damper did they have Bill? I don't knowingly have a shaft damper on my 2000, and that's an OD car?

I don't have the 2000 manual to hand, but from what I remember, it's completely internal, sp presumably incorporated in the splined section as the rest is welded.

Cheers,
Bill.

[sparky_spit]

What is the purpose of the phasing?  To eliminate vibration?

I've got a spline-end prop from a Dolomite on my Spitfire (J-type OD) which was shortened by a "specialist".  I wonder whether he was special enough to keep the phasing correct?  I bet not.