Replacement of UJ's

[Richard the old one]

I purchased new back in 1997 my first 150HL dolomite and I am still driving it.

Looking quickly through my records I had to replaced my first propshaft U/J at 36,400 miles in 1980 it was the rear one. It was the second repair that I had to undertake on the car. The first was to replace the nearside outer headlamp.

Then in 1990 at 104,000 miles I had to change both the front and rear U/J

Then in 1991 at 120,000 miles I changed the rear U/J

Then in 1997 at 161,000 miles I changed the rear U/J

Then in 1999 at 178,000 miles I changed the front U/J

Then in 2005 mileage not recorded I changed the front U/J

Then in 2006 at 245000 miles I changed the front U/J

The car is now at 310,000 miles and I have not changed another U/J on this car since 2006.

I believe the later U/J are of a lot better build quality and have made a point of fitting ones that allow a grease nipple to be fitted.

Over the years I have also replaced a number on my other dolomites but as stated above over more recent years the U/J do seem to be of a lot better build quality.

[Richard the old one]

It was getting late last night when I added my previous comments and looking at them today I was surprised to see that there is no reference to changing U/J's in the middle of the prop shaft.

I have also had time to look at the records for my other 1500hl dolomite's.

In Feb 2002 I obtained my Green W reg car it had 30,400 miles on the clock and it now has 67,800 without me having to change any U/J's.

In Feb 2007 I obtained my Blue W reg car it had approx 37,000 miles on the clock and it now has 81,300 again without me having to change any U/J's.

In 2015 I obtained another Brown R reg car it had about 30,000 miles on the clock and it has not covered many miles yet as it has taken me some time to get it back on the road and to sort out various problems, hence no U/J's changed as yet.

I have also scrapped a couple of dolomite's which I had owned for a number of years but unfortunately I did not keep the maintenance records for these car's but I am certain that had to replace some U/J's on these cars.

A few years ago I also worked on a friends 1500SE and this involved changing the rear prop shaft U/J