Bongo Fury

The end of the " tube " the splined front prop end goes into is capped off inside anyway

skater wrote:The end of the " tube " the splined front prop end goes into is capped off inside anyway

Thanks for that - always wondered..............

Ah well, £20 and thanks to my lovely mechanical friend Marc Blake, of Blakes Autos (he's a mobile mechanic in Gwent Area - plug, plug, he removed my front prop shaft. Spot on to you guys on here with the 14mm spanner info - 6 bolts later and no more prop shaft. Tempted to do a deliberate typing error here and rename it poop shaft. Sad but meaningful, it seemed to be the cause of all my woes - gone has the vibration, juddering and other bone shaking experiences, i can now do full lock in any direction and i feel like a figure skater on ice. Its like a breath of fresh air.
A guy on ebay is now breaking a bongo in Newport, south wales. Had four newish wheels and tyres off him tonight. MOT first thing in morning, so its off to bed now, wish me luck and i'll let you all know if anything else falls off in the meantime.
I almost love my bongo again, thanks to you all.

Glad you're feeling happier.

Hopefully now there's no urgency to work out why the front propshaft wore out.
It can be bit of a " chicken or the egg " thing- VC or tyres.

Are your new tyres the same size all round?

That's what I will do next time.

There's loads on here about tyre sizes, importantly any difference between F and R for 4wd.

Oh yeah, there was an official recall, in the 90s, for the front prop - the U shaped middle support should have a yellow paint mark on it to show it's been "done". If you get another one look out for that.

James

jaynetheweed wrote:Ah well, £20 and thanks to my lovely mechanical friend Marc Blake, of Blakes Autos (he's a mobile mechanic in Gwent Area - plug, plug, he removed my front prop shaft. Spot on to you guys on here with the 14mm spanner info - 6 bolts later and no more prop shaft. Tempted to do a deliberate typing error here and rename it poop shaft. Sad but meaningful, it seemed to be the cause of all my woes - gone has the vibration, juddering and other bone shaking experiences, i can now do full lock in any direction and i feel like a figure skater on ice. Its like a breath of fresh air.
A guy on ebay is now breaking a bongo in Newport, south wales. Had four newish wheels and tyres off him tonight. MOT first thing in morning, so its off to bed now, wish me luck and i'll let you all know if anything else falls off in the meantime.
I almost love my bongo again, thanks to you all.

Excellent news - keep it. Getting it back to A1 running order will be an interesting and worthwhile project (and now with no time/cost pressure), and then its off on the road you go.........

Theres a guy on anglesea breaking a low milage bongo nalso he is selling on ebay its a white one

Dave. wrote:Theres a guy on anglesea breaking a low milage bongo nalso he is selling on ebay its a white one

Should have purchased a GREEN one, it would still be running and complete.

Did you check the VC before the shaft was removed as suggested in post #14?

dandywarhol wrote:Did you check the VC before the shaft was removed as suggested in post #14?

Sorry, no - the mechanic that took the prop off only fitted me in as a favour - he's a mobile fitter and "squeezed me in" on the way to another job, so it was a bit of a rush.

Consequently, my U bracket on the prop didn't have a yellow label on it so perhaps it was a duff one that didn't get a recall/repair.

At least its off now. I have a few other minor issues - a leaking rear axle seal (anyone know how long these take to replace?) - have both on order from a Mazda dealer - thanks to the diagrams I knew exactly what part numbers to order - and an advisory on one of the anti roll bar bushes on the front - so I'm doing both of these. £40 total from Mazda.

When I first got the bongo it had power steering fluid leaking from it - i filled the reservoir with wynns? stop leak - it worked - not a leak for an entire year - but i knew at some point it would have to be done. I don't think its a major leak now, but it is an MOT failure if they see the stuff dripping out. Can't complain. Should have done it sooner, its just not used much, so it gets put to one side.....

Lastly I need a little welding done on the rear wheel arch and front inner sill apparently. Its not much, but I wonder if my bongo was undersealed? Not sure what its supposed to look like.

£100 wheels/tyresx4, £50 MOT - no retest fee, £130 for a steering rack, centre cup holder, battery and rear light cluster -bargain!, £20 prop shaft removal, £40 oil seals and d-bushes

£340 total - just need to get the welding and fitting of parts done for under £160 now to make hubby happy......fingers crossed.

£500 not bad including MOT for a 1996 vehicle. definitely sticking with 2wd now. I know the 4wd is great in the snow, but i can always stay at home for a few days....with my conversion weighing the back end down i'm sure i'll still get good traction anyway. There must be 1/2 ton in the back. Everything and the kitchen sink! We must be mad.....