Driveshaft spiders

[Hill Country B20]

I read what I can find about the driveshaft spiders and replacing them. Am I correct that there should be no radial back and forth play to the installed spiders? I know that I must be very conscientious about keeping the orientation of all components so that things go back together just as they came apart. Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

[chriswgawne]

I presume you are referring to the rubber spiders which were fitted to what the factory called
'Series 1' Aurelias ( up to and including 4th srs B20, Aurelia saloons and B24 Spiders) as opposed to the fitting used on S5 & S6 and B24S Aurelias?
If so, the aluminium holders can over time wear sufficiently that even new rubber spiders will be a little loose when everything is bolted up. In this case I have successfully once used 'V' shaped steel shims to take up the wear although tbh I much prefer to use less worn aluminium parts these days.
And if you propshaft is currently vibration free just mark the positions of everything before disassembly .
Hope this helps.
Chris

[Hill Country B20]

Yes, Chris, my B20 is a Series 2 and so with "spiders" rather than guibos.
I'm having a hard time picturing v-shaped shims that you mention you made. What sort of play was it that these shims were supposed to take up? Right now I have play at the spider "legs" when I rotate the assembly back and forth.

[chriswgawne]

Sorry for tardy response. The aluminium spiders were particularly badly worn on a S3 B20 I had so even with new rubber spiders there was play. So I made up some mild steel V shaped spacers to fit over the ends of the aluminium vanes ensuring they sat fully inside the 2 adjacent spiders.
It worked but in the end I found some barely worn aluminium parts so fitted those.
I hope this makes sense.
Chris