Rear Half Shaft

[glocati]

sorry for the long post in advance. Has anyone had to replace a rear axle (US Passenger side) and if so, how difficult is it? I have an annoying vibration coming from the right rear of my 95 525ia 106k, mainly noticable rom 58-65 mph. seems to go away @65mph and is what i consider slighly noticable from 40-58mph. When I bought car, I thought is was a bent rim. I later found out right rear quarter panel had been re-sprayed. Long story short, 3 different sets of rims later,moving wheels front to back etc. hubcentric rings, new sachs sport kit, control arm bushings, etc. the vibration in the right rear remains. Given the car has been hit back there, i have come to the conclusion right rearhalf shaft is bent. My independant shop still blames it on out of balance wheels, even though i have had each set of rims balanced on a hunter machine and the vibration does not follow the "offending" wheel. Any ideas, other possiblities or similar situations may help in my diagnosis. thx

[632 Regal]

half shafts are easy, need metric allen whenches.

[Robin-535im]

I'll give my standard answer to this one :)

The job is easy, but a bit messy. The half shafts can come out without removing anything else, but the 6 allen bolts that hold each side in are usually full of crud and can be pretty tight. Wire brush off the grime, and be sure to clean out the inside of the allen head bolt. Grime likes to sit deep inside there and you need the key to fit in pretty deep to get a good enough seat. I used a seal puller with a sharp point to carve out the gook, well at least I did after the first one almost stripped out on me due to the allen wrench not being fully seated in the bolt! Other than that it's easy. Think about diff side seals while you're in there too. The axle stub slides out and the seal is easily accessible with the half shaft gone.

HTH

- Robin

[632 Regal]

one of mine were stripped, had to use vice grips but after de-crudding the holes the rest were easy

[glocati]

thanks to all on this. you have all confirmed my hope that it would be just the allen heads and the whole shaft comes out. sounds pretty straight forward. a new diff seal definitely makes sense. thx Greg

[shogun]

Have a look here
http://bmwe32.masscom.net/

[glocati]

Have a look here
http://bmwe32.masscom.net/

thanks Shogun. helpful link