Driveshaft installation problem! (pictures)

[mother_russia]

Sup dudes.. so I got a little problem... Ive been working on my e30 for a few weeks now, and just ran into a problem...
I got the car as an auto, so ive been trying to do the 5 speed swap. Today, I tried to install the driveshaft, and I find out that its about 4 inches too long. The original driveshaft, off the auto, is 4 inches too short. So, what do I do? What did I do wrong?

I know I have the small flange driveshaft because anything more than 3 inches(see picture #1) from one bolt to another would not be considered a small flange.

In picture #2, I'm trying to show you guys that the driveshaft doesn't want to fit in. I really do not know what to do with this. Has anyone else had this problem before??
The whole driveshaft is sitting as far back into the rear diff as possible. I have no idea how to create more room in order to make this fit..

Picture #1


Picture #2

[ttrousdell]

Are you sure you put the two sections of the 5 speed driveshaft together right. Splined section slid in all the way although 6 inches is a stretch if that was the case? The auto tranny is about 4 inches longer then the manual tranny as you probably know. Where did you get the driveshaft and is it possible that it could be from a different car?

Also, the steering wheel doesn't fit in with the pedal set. Anyone know why?

Explain what that is?

[jlevie]

It sounds to me like you don't have the correct drive shaft or you have the wrong transmission. The splined part of the drive shaft is about six inches long. When installed a bit more than half of the spline will be in the rear half of the drive shaft. So there isn't enough spline to explain the drive shaft being six inches too long.

[mother_russia]

Are you sure you put the two sections of the 5 speed driveshaft together right. Splined section slid in all the way although 6 inches is a stretch if that was the case? The auto tranny is about 4 inches longer then the manual tranny as you probably know. Where did you get the driveshaft and is it possible that it could be from a different car?


Explain what that is?

I just edited the post. see if you understand it now.

[mother_russia]

It sounds to me like you don't have the correct drive shaft or you have the wrong transmission. The splined part of the drive shaft is about six inches long. When installed a bit more than half of the spline will be in the rear half of the drive shaft. So there isn't enough spline to explain the drive shaft being six inches too long.

The engine/tranny are both off of a 87 e30. The tranny is a getrag 260.

[MR 325]

What car is the driveshaft from? Silly question but you know a guibo (flex disc) goes on there too right?

Any non-airbag E30 pedal box is going to be a direct swap in to your car.

[mother_russia]

What car is the driveshaft from? Silly question but you know a guibo (flex disc) goes on there too right?

Any non-airbag E30 pedal box is going to be a direct swap in to your car.

So which pedal set do I need? I got a 1990 325i sedan. Do I need the early or the late modelp pedals? How do I know if theyre the airbag or non airbag pedals?

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[mother_russia]

I just got off the phone with the dealer, and he gave me the part numbers for the pedal sets. He said that if the part number ends in 720, its the airbag pedals, and if it ends with 719, its the nonairbag pedals.
So if I have, let's say the 719 pedals and they don't fit, then the 720s should fit?

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[MR 325]

So which pedal set do I need? I got a 1990 325i sedan. Do I need the early or the late modelp pedals? How do I know if theyre the airbag or non airbag pedals?

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Ok, I didn't realize you had an airbag car.

The easiest way to do it (and the way I did my old 90 sedan) is leave the bracket in place and only swap the actual pedals. The airbag pedal box has the bolt provisions for the clutch master cylinder even on automatic cars. You can even use those pedals you have, you'll have no clutch return spring though. I never had one on mine and it felt 100% perfect.

[mother_russia]

Ok, I didn't realize you had an airbag car.

The easiest way to do it (and the way I did my old 90 sedan) is leave the bracket in place and only swap the actual pedals. The airbag pedal box has the bolt provisions for the clutch master cylinder even on automatic cars. You can even use those pedals you have, you'll have no clutch return spring though. I never had one on mine and it felt 100% perfect.

I didn't know if I would need the clutch return spring, so I just cut out the bracket, and welded it onto the pedal set that had the bracket missing haha. Just wanted to be on the safe side. Worked just fine.

But now I have two problems.
1. No spark(http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=252944)
2. Still can't figure out what's wrong with the driveshaft... I'm gonna re-edit the original post and try to see if I can get some help..

[jlevie]

Is the drive fully collapsed? If it is none of the splines will be visible.

[mother_russia]

Is the drive fully collapsed? If it is none of the splines will be visible.

What do you mean fully collapsed? I think so....


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[jlevie]

Loosen the collar nut and push the front half of the drive shaft into the rear half. If those parts don't slide easily, you may have to separate the halves and clean the splines. But before separating the drive shaft make sure the paint marks are visible so you can put the halves back together correctly.

[mother_russia]

One of the things that we did though, was leave the half of the driveshaft that connects to the rear diff in place. The car was originally automatic. We never took it out, since they look exactly the same as the manual rear half of the driveshaft. All we did was swap out the front half of the driveshaft, thaf connects to the tranny. Could that be the problem?

[Cyrix2k]

Answer this question - what car is the driveshaft from? Year, model, and manual/auto?