Swapping Diff output flange?

[nextelbuddy]

Sorry i meant the input flange

Just wondering if anyone has ever successfully swaped out the 4 bolt flange on their diff with a 6 bolt flange to accept a universal joint drive shaft?

i looked on real oem and it looks like it is not possible but i swear i have read places that people always say you can swap flanges on the diff.


the 2 flanges both have different spacer sets and the 6 bolt flange has splines where as the 4 bolt doesnt appear to have splines.


if i could swap flanges on my diff then i would be able to use my 96 m3 drive shaft that i have instead of struggling to locate a local 4 bolt drive shaft

[Adrian_Visser]

The output flanges to the halfshafts are swappable I don't think the same applies to the input I could be wrong though.

Oh yeah wrong section btw.

[nextelbuddy]

The output flanges to the halfshafts are swappable I don't think the same applies to the input I could be wrong though.

Oh yeah wrong section btw.

thanks but i felt it was the correct section seeing as how this pertains to my 24 valve swap and it would help to know if there was mroe t han one way to do a drive shaft setup instead of the 4 bolt route everyone seems to go.

[rpm620]

people go with whats there b/c you can get a drive shaft that bolts right in! why make it harder for your self.. just get a 4 bolt E36 drive shaft.. i also think the 325e 5spd drive shaft works to... idk tho..

[MacBudd541]

I in the same situation, i have a 6 bolt from a 95 m3 i just parted so that would be killer if that would work. What e36s had the 4 bolt? and which one do i need? zf box in an 89 325i... auto? manual?

[xwill112x]

the 325 and 328's had the 4 bolt. i think it was year specific but im not sure. i bought mine off of a guy on here.

[erik325i]

I just installed a 4-bolt driveshaft that was marked as from a 97 m3

Erik

[nextelbuddy]

I in the same situation, i have a 6 bolt from a 95 m3 i just parted so that would be killer if that would work. What e36s had the 4 bolt? and which one do i need? zf box in an 89 325i... auto? manual?

Well heres the deal.

the e36 325 did have 4 bolt drive shafts however the 3 bolt flange in front for the GUIBO is the smaller one that will not work on ZF transmissions unless you change out that 3 bolt flange to the larger 96mm large guibo flange or you use a e36 getrag transmission

the 4bolt drive shafts everyone is using is the 97+ 328i/M3 manual transmission ones that came with ZF transmissions because they had the large 3 bolt guibo flange up front and the 4 bolt flange out back.


Theoretically there should be MORE 97+ large guibo/4 bolt drive shafts around to buy however that doesn’t seem to be the case there there always seems to be a super abundance of 95/early model 96 large guibo/6 bolt drive shafts available that no one wants.


Everyone says just get the 97+ one its easy but they don’t seem to understand they got lucky finding theirs as I’ve been looking for 2 months now and they just aren’t laying around anywhere and the ones that you do find no one will part with because they want to keep it or sell bundled with their S52 swaps.


It’s even hard to find 325e manual transmission drive shafts which are also large guibo 3 bolt and 4 bolt out back for some reason which i have also been looking for.


i wouldn’t make these threads if I wasn’t actively looking at all my resources available.

[MacBudd541]

thank you for clearing that up. now i know what to look for!

[xwill112x]

so would a 92 e36 5 spd drive shaft work with my getrag 240 bolted to a m50?

[nextelbuddy]

so would a 92 e36 5 spd drive shaft work with my getrag 240 bolted to a m50?

it should. as those 4 bolt drive shafts do separate into 2 halves like the 97+ ones.

its the 6 bolt drive shaft units that do not separate becaus they are bolted together with a bolt at the center u joint and from my understanding everyone who does these swaps always has a little bit of stretch of half an inch to an inch showing some splines between the 2 halves of the drive shaft.

if you were to use a 6 bolt drive shaft then you wouldnt get this convienince and instead be left with a drive shaft that is not long enough.

and that the drive shaft came from a manual transmission car as the automatic ones are to short.

just remember key points


when using a getrag transmission then make sure your drive shaft has 4 bolt rear, 3 bolt front (smaller guibo flange) and it separates at the center with out a bolt holding it together.


when using a ZF transmission then make sure it has the larger 3 bolt flange for the larger guibo and separates in the middle and has 4 bolt rear.

[xwill112x]

k thanks for the info, always makes me nervous when ordering a part...and it could be the wrong one. :up: