ryan roopnarine
11-13-2005, 09:09 PM
please excuse me while i rant for a bit first.
today, i got up at 7.05 to replace my (assumed) bad center bearing. i started around 7.20 or so. move the cars around and deploy my brand new plastic ramps. go to drive car up ramps, when i realise that the car just keeps pushing them along, and that the ramps aren't grabbing the driveway surface. determined not to be deterred, i let myself only be somewhat pissed, and turn the car around in the opposite direction. if i can find the receipt, those ramps are going back to advance auto. pick up the pace a wee bit. see that the ramps suck, and barely lift the car off the ground. not gonna be deterred.....
then, the back wheel on the stupid @ss walmart jack falls OFF. starting to think either somebody, somewhere....doesn't want me to work on the car, or the car doesn't want to be worked on. go to put the wheel back on...i can't find a damn bmw special tool.... pn. 0001, a flat head screwdriver. now, im getting pissed, and steal a screwdriver to put the wheel back on. its now about 8.30. raise the car, lower the exhaust, remove the heat shield. after taking out 6 shield bolts, one hits me in the head as i pull the shield off. do some quick mental math and realise i only unbolted 6. i look up, and what do i see?.....
the center bearing is hanging on by one bolt!!!
now, the synmptoms of my problem were a clunk clunk clunk when taking off from a stop. i replaced a defective guibo before so im not completely unknowledgeable about driveshaft vibrations. guibo was slightly more than one inspection II old, so i assumed it wasn't the culprit. could feel the click when my hand was on the tunnel, or on the emergency brake. so i assumed that the center bearing was at fault.
here are some pics of the situation
the guibo (free of obvious cracks)
edit----i removed this pic to preserve post formatting
a bad pic of the intact rubber around the Cbearing
http://plaza.ufl.edu/rroopnar/cb%20dark.JPG
a better pic of the center bearing
http://plaza.ufl.edu/rroopnar/cb-np.JPG
and a pic of the U joint
this is the one i want advice about
http://plaza.ufl.edu/rroopnar/u%20joint.JPG
now, before you rag on me, im pretty sure i reinstalled the centerbearing when i did the guibo a while ago, as the bolt remaining for the bearing was nice and tight.
a shaking of the shaft indicated movement only at the guibo end, as a result of the parking pawl, ie, by hand, i could see no cause to believe the shaft was now out of tolerance. i drove around with it like this for only a week, so i don't think i did that much damage as to unbalance this driveshaft. if you look in the last pic, it would appear (at the arrow) that some type of lubricant is starting to infiltrate out of the U joint. i think i may have inadvertently picked some type of lube retainer metal or seal off of the u joint in feeling it. from the pic, does anyone care to tell me if my DS is on the way out? im too young to have too much experinece with cars with U joints (all FWD before), so i have nothing to go on, really. i didn't pull the shaft off, so i doon't know if the u joint moves smoothly through its range of movement.
im thinking that my plan should be to buy a used DS from vines on ebay, have it balanced at a truck shop, fit the new bearing to it, repack the cv, and put it on at a later date (2 weeks) if the driveshaft on there is on the way out. any suggestions/comments? thanks.
ps--the title refers to me having trouble prior, but not (necessarily) having to pull the shaft out of the car to resolve the problem (at least today).
pps--i had asked previously about disassembling of the driveshaft in situ. if one does not remove the exhaust, MAYBE one can do it. but with the muffler in the way, its impossible to do, even with banana shaped wrenches and such.
today, i got up at 7.05 to replace my (assumed) bad center bearing. i started around 7.20 or so. move the cars around and deploy my brand new plastic ramps. go to drive car up ramps, when i realise that the car just keeps pushing them along, and that the ramps aren't grabbing the driveway surface. determined not to be deterred, i let myself only be somewhat pissed, and turn the car around in the opposite direction. if i can find the receipt, those ramps are going back to advance auto. pick up the pace a wee bit. see that the ramps suck, and barely lift the car off the ground. not gonna be deterred.....
then, the back wheel on the stupid @ss walmart jack falls OFF. starting to think either somebody, somewhere....doesn't want me to work on the car, or the car doesn't want to be worked on. go to put the wheel back on...i can't find a damn bmw special tool.... pn. 0001, a flat head screwdriver. now, im getting pissed, and steal a screwdriver to put the wheel back on. its now about 8.30. raise the car, lower the exhaust, remove the heat shield. after taking out 6 shield bolts, one hits me in the head as i pull the shield off. do some quick mental math and realise i only unbolted 6. i look up, and what do i see?.....
the center bearing is hanging on by one bolt!!!
now, the synmptoms of my problem were a clunk clunk clunk when taking off from a stop. i replaced a defective guibo before so im not completely unknowledgeable about driveshaft vibrations. guibo was slightly more than one inspection II old, so i assumed it wasn't the culprit. could feel the click when my hand was on the tunnel, or on the emergency brake. so i assumed that the center bearing was at fault.
here are some pics of the situation
the guibo (free of obvious cracks)
edit----i removed this pic to preserve post formatting
a bad pic of the intact rubber around the Cbearing
http://plaza.ufl.edu/rroopnar/cb%20dark.JPG
a better pic of the center bearing
http://plaza.ufl.edu/rroopnar/cb-np.JPG
and a pic of the U joint
this is the one i want advice about
http://plaza.ufl.edu/rroopnar/u%20joint.JPG
now, before you rag on me, im pretty sure i reinstalled the centerbearing when i did the guibo a while ago, as the bolt remaining for the bearing was nice and tight.
a shaking of the shaft indicated movement only at the guibo end, as a result of the parking pawl, ie, by hand, i could see no cause to believe the shaft was now out of tolerance. i drove around with it like this for only a week, so i don't think i did that much damage as to unbalance this driveshaft. if you look in the last pic, it would appear (at the arrow) that some type of lubricant is starting to infiltrate out of the U joint. i think i may have inadvertently picked some type of lube retainer metal or seal off of the u joint in feeling it. from the pic, does anyone care to tell me if my DS is on the way out? im too young to have too much experinece with cars with U joints (all FWD before), so i have nothing to go on, really. i didn't pull the shaft off, so i doon't know if the u joint moves smoothly through its range of movement.
im thinking that my plan should be to buy a used DS from vines on ebay, have it balanced at a truck shop, fit the new bearing to it, repack the cv, and put it on at a later date (2 weeks) if the driveshaft on there is on the way out. any suggestions/comments? thanks.
ps--the title refers to me having trouble prior, but not (necessarily) having to pull the shaft out of the car to resolve the problem (at least today).
pps--i had asked previously about disassembling of the driveshaft in situ. if one does not remove the exhaust, MAYBE one can do it. but with the muffler in the way, its impossible to do, even with banana shaped wrenches and such.