driveshft vibration dampener removal

[oldskoolbmw]

i broke the sheetmetal shift assembly in my 86 325. i have to remove the driveshaft to get to it and mine has a vibration damper. i have the nuts off the dampers studs and the damper is loose but i cant remove it cuz the studs hit the tranny, and its so close i cant seem to get to the driveshaft nuts on the tranny side of the guibo with the damper there. how the hell do u get the studs out to remove the damper? or is there a way to get to the driveshaft nuts with the damper there? anyone else had this problem?

[ldsbeaker]

well, look at that. the first search result. I'm in the same boat.
Car is on three wheels, guibo's toast, and the vibration damper is in the way.
I'll keep on searching....

[dashboardmonkey]

Drop your diff so the driveshaft can go back further, or drop the whole rear sub frame.

It's a pain in the ass but makes this task much easier than fighting with the drive shaft/ exhaust, ect ect

[blck325is]

Hmm so I know this is an old thread but I'm having the same problem. the driveshaft came out but the damn metal cover for the dampener is still attached to the transmission and I have no idea how to get it off.

[Naplm00]

I disconnected the driveshaft from the rear diff and disconnected the centermount bearing. then i pulled down on the driveshaft after removing the 3 bolts/nuts i could get to. it takes some doing but it then slipped off from inside the vibration dampner.

I then unbolted that and threw it away

[Naplm00]

IU unbolted it with a wrench and a deep socket

[blck325is]

Cool, found that a thinwall socket would do the trick. Thanks.

[TrentW]

I've got an 89 325is 5 spd with the vibration dampener also and trying to get the damned driveshaft out to have the rear u-joint replaced. I've removed the three bolts that hold the guibo to the trans flange, loosened the collar nut, removed the bolts from the rear u-joint and got the driveshaft loose from the diff and removed the two bolts that hold the CSB. I can pull down on the driveshaft, but it still doesn't want to come loose at the trans. Bentley is vague on this procedure except it says to rotate the shaft 60 degrees.

Do I need to remove the other three nuts from the guibo to the dampener? It seems like it should just slide off, and even when I tried to remove those nuts, you can only get to them with an open end wrench and they're tight and don't want to round them off.

I suppose I could go ahead and drop the diff and see if that helps, but doesn't seem like that should be absolutely necessary really.

I've also read that it's fine to just eliminate the dampener once it's off, but I'm skeptical. Anyone do this before?

[jlevie]

Loosen the collar nut on the drive shaft and collapse it from either end. Once one end of the drive shaft is free the other end will come off.

[E30Gus]

If your dampener is like mine then the bulk of it is connected to the metal (mounting plate part)around the dirveshaft bolts with just rubber. I ended up cutting through the rubber with a razor blade until the round dampener part was removed from the back mounting plate part. That gave me clearance to get the DS out when I needed to. Recently I swapped engines and took the rest of the dampener out (mounting plate). I had to take the tranny output drive coupler off and then heat up and pound out the studs to fully remove it.

[TrentW]

It's out--your advice was golden yet again Jim.

Still curious as to whether I could leave out the dampener when I reinstall and be okay. Anyone?

[DÌEGØ]

It's out--your advice was golden yet again Jim.

Still curious as to whether I could leave out the dampener when I reinstall and be okay. Anyone?

yeah dont put it back on, you dont need it. I took mine out when I replaced my d-shaft and havent noticed any vibrations or anything.....

[TrentW]

Just dropped the driveshaft off to have the u-joint replaced and the guy said both of them are bad. Just as I suspected. The good part is he's installing greaseable joints for $150 each.

[jlevie]

It's out--your advice was golden yet again Jim.

Still curious as to whether I could leave out the dampener when I reinstall and be okay. Anyone?

I always delete the vibration damper the first time I remove the driveshaft.

Just dropped the driveshaft off to have the u-joint replaced and the guy said both of them are bad. Just as I suspected. The good part is he's installing greaseable joints for $150 each.

The drive shaft must be balanced after replacing the u-joints. I hope that shop can do that.

[TrentW]

I made sure he said that he'd balance it also. I left the dampener and guibo on when I dropped it off, will that make any difference if he balances it with it on and then I remove it?