An old and overloaded Nissan 1400 bakkie turned up at our fuel station the other day.
As the driver pulled away the whole vehicle shuddered as if the clutch was grabbing unevenly, and Syd, who happened to be nearby, shouted to the driver to stop.
Syd told him that if he didn’t have the clutch done soon it would become a far more expensive repair. Syd took it for a drive and returned with a puzzled look on his face.
He said that the shudder happened not only on pull-away but also at low speed in top gear, but to a lesser extent in other gears. But there was no sign of the clutch misbehaving.
Syd was no wiser after doing an underbody inspection and after rocking the engine with a crowbar the mountings seemed fine.
Japie was asked to drive the bakkie slowly down a deserted road in top gear and accelerate as he passed the spot where Syd was crouching below road level at a culvert.
It took several runs before Japie managed to synchronise the shudder and the culvert, but when it happened, Syd saw the propshaft move up and down while it rotated.
Instantly he realised that he should have suspected the universal joints the moment the clutch appeared normal. It didn’t take him long to remove the propeller shaft and replace a stiff and rusty rear universal joint.
