Shortened Drive Shaft?

[euroshark]

CSB replacement is simple as well. Just separate the halves, and use a pickle fork / large screw driver / very large open ended wrench / anything you can fit around the shaft and apply pressure to with a hammer. Put the splined and of the shaft on the ground and hold the other end, and whack the bearing / tool until it comes off. It usually comes off pretty easily if it was installed correctly.

Installing it (the last two I did) requires cleaning the shaft where the CSB sits, greasing it up with high temp grease (CV axle grease works good), and slipping it on. If it doesn't slip on easily, try tapping it on the same way you removed it, but be careful to do it evenly around the entire bearing you might damage it.

[markseven]

The DIY instructions would go something like this:

1. Remove the exhaust hangers and unbolt the downpipes from the flanges at the manifolds. Remove exhaust system. -OR- Just loosen the downpipes and let the exhaust drop down enough to access the front and rear of the driveshaft.

2. With the transmission in any gear, start loosening the bolts that hold the driveshaft / guibo to the transmission output flange. There will be 3 bolts, so taking the car out of gear to rotate the driveshaft might be necessary. Having the tranny in gear isn't necessary, but it might help if the bolts are really tight. Don't remove the bolts yet, just get them loose.

3. You will need to be able to jack up the rear end to loosen all of the bolts at on the differential flange. There are 4 of these, so I just jack up one wheel and rotate the driveshaft until I can get at 2 bolts at a time, then hold everything in place with the parking brake. Loosen then repeat till they are all loose.

4. Unbolt the center support bearing (csb) from the chassis. There may be a large heat shield in the way once you remove the exhaust, this will have to be removed to access the driveshaft. The csb should have two bolts and is very easy to remove. Once the csb is off the car, the driveshaft should hang lose. If it does not come out at this point, you may have to loosen the big gland nut that keeps the two halves of the shaft together. Do this with a large pair of channel locks, it shouldn't be super tight. Either remove the shaft as one piece by bending it in the middle, or by separating the halves and removing them separately.

5. Installation will be the same as removal. If you split the halves to remove it, you probably need to put them in separately and connect them afterwards.

Thank you for taking the time to type all of that :up: it is appreciated :D

[markseven]

You are absolutely right.. the differential remains in a fixed position regardless of how far you lower the car. On the other hand, the axle shafts may have to be modified (depending on how low you make the car) because the diagonal distance from the differential to the hub may change.

True for swing arm, but full IRS? I totally forgot that my car was had IRS :giggle: Stepping into the proverbial flame retardant suite...

[nando]

You are absolutely right.. the differential remains in a fixed position regardless of how far you lower the car. On the other hand, the axle shafts may have to be modified (depending on how low you make the car) because the diagonal distance from the differential to the hub may change.

the CV shafts don't need to be modified. they are made to change in length as well as angle through the entire suspension travel of our cars. you'd have to be doing something pretty extreme to require different length shafts..