Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

Hi Guys - my 1990 260100 mile Honda engined Rover 416 GSi is in for it's MOT, and I have been told that it has failed because of faulty dynamic dampers on the drive shaft. The best remedy the garage say is to do without them, (cut them off?), assuming that I don't drive round at 100mph on the motorways all the time.
After a quick look at my Haynes Manual, and getting up to speed on this item, I am wondering if this is a good idea. I am assuming that spares wont be available, or if they were it would be a bit of a strip down job to fit them.
Has anyone got any previous experience with this fault, and is eliminating them the best remedy? Should I worry?
Thanks for any advice,
Guy Osborne

Think I have a NOS one in the garage - they do slide onto the shaft, so you'd have to take the joint off one end to get it on.

If you want to do that, I'll have a butchers

Personally, I don't think Honda would have put it there for no reason but you're probably OK to drive without one until it warms up a bit to do the job. Unless you have a heated garage, of course

Showing as In Stock at Rimmers.

Also, remanufactured shafts sold as "ready to fit" do not have dampers on them.

You can't even retro-fit the dampers to remanufactured shafts, as the "remanufacturing" process is to turn down the shafts from 22mm to 19mm to get rid of all the corrosion. Clamping dampers with a 22mm bore to a 19mm shaft will result in them being so far off centre, you'd be better off not fitting them.

Almost certainly the car can be driven without dampers.

Also note, the Haynes manual does state the damper positions along the shafts in mm. However, the distances are completely wrong. When I was remanufacturing my own shafts (NOT turning them down to 19mm...!!!) I'd made the measurements of their positions before I dismantled the shafts and put them back in the same place.

Just my two-pence worth.

The items for LH and RH on a 216 are both item 5 on this page: https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-GRID002216

They don't actually say they're in stock, but they do say they are in stock at their suppliers (Motaclan/Xpart).

You'll probably have to put heavy gauge tape over the stepped ring at the end of the driveshaft, to soften the change in diameter to be able to get them on at all. You'll also need a copious amount of silicone grease (which won't attack the rubber) to get them to slide freely down the shafts. Leaving some silicone grease trapped under the dampers when they're in position is probably a good thing long term, as this is where water gets in and corrodes the driveshafts to the point where they snap under heavy acceleration. Personally, if you're disassembling the driveshafts this far, I'd take the inner CV boots off as well, clean and degrease the shafts, apply a really good rust converter such as Dinitrol RC900 and put a coating of some indestructible paint over the top, such as EM 1-2-1, before refitting everything. There's a Viking article available to members that details my driveshaft rebuild.