Junkyard driveshaft

[ethree]

What are the chances of finding a viable driveshaft at the junkyard?
It's for an eta and there are lots of those at the yard usually, thats where they belong right?

What should I be looking for? Nice free moving u-joints with no play that don't bind up anywhere in their range of motion right? Anything else?

Am I correct in thinking I need a driveshaft from a manual transmission eta powered car? That there is no model or transmission interchangability?

TIA

[PУCCKAЯ_e30ka]

what does binding exactly mean?

[Rigmaster]

most of the used driveshafts I've come across are no good. They usually get a notchy rear u-joint. There are a couple of different eta driveshafts- check realoem.com or your favorite parts site to see what the breakdown is. Some of them (early etas I think) have a larger guibo than the others. You should be able to use most of the i driveshafts too- just make sure they have the same guibo size.

[ethree]

Mine is an early build 01/1986. realoem shows the change in driveshafts on e an i cars as happening 09/1987. So I just need some luck with finding lower mileage early build cars tomorrow.

[mikeedler]

the big change is the carrier bearing was a wider mount on one of the cars. I know here in germany there are a ton of different possiblities with the driveshafts.
most of the differences seem to be in the front section (guibo mounting bolts, and lengths)- the lengths might just be a euro thing, because the 320i had a different transmission than the 325 cars.

i would recommend taking yours with. i went through HELL this summer with driveshafts- about 4 times back and forth.

[Skoobeesnak]

Junkyard ripoffs

I was in need of a drive shaft as well recently and called our local wrecking yard. Now this is a European only wrecking yard which is nice because I can usually find what I need quickly, but I don't feel that they have ever given me a good deal on any of the parts I have got from them. Plus it doesn't help that they are about as friendly as the dog they have guarding their treasure.

So I call them and the guy said yeah we have one for $250 which is pretty damn high for a used one that I have no idea of the condition. Then I asked, since they were wanting so much money for the part if it was already pulled off of the car which they they most likely got for free since I was trying to figure out why in the hell they think their parts are made of gold and they said "no you will have to pull it yourself". Needless to say I have found one elsewhere, thanks to this website. They must think they are part of the BMW stealership!

[einstein57]

When i cracked my brake line the car i pulled the repleacement from had a recently rebuilt driveshaft. I've actually seen a few. One time it was driveshaft that my dad installed. too funny. But alot of the good junkyards out here have people who make their living on certain parts. All the lsd's. driveshafts, odometer gears, afm sensors, and obc light trays are the first things to be ripped off of the cars.