Help. I don't know what broke

[Sam-Son]

Ok so I got the car back from the tranny swap no problem. Been driving it for about a week now without any problems. I'm driving around yesterday and I start to feel some serious vibrations through the shifter in 1st, 3rd, and 5th gear. Then when I'm accelerating in first and second I get a horrible thudding and clunking from the rear end. I don't really notice it in any other gears. but it seems like something serious. What's gone wrong?
Please Help
-Mike:(

[Torque]

Guibo or the driveshaft carrier bearing.

[Sam-Son]

Guibo or the driveshaft carrier bearing.
I thought it might be a guibo. But how could that break so quick?

[BFEINZIMER]

Scares me from wanting to do my swap :/

[Torque]

I thought it might be a guibo. But how could that break so quick?who knows what sort of condition it was in ... it's a wear item; unless you put on a new one ... then I don't know.

[632 Regal]

they may not have set the center bearing preload correctly?

[Sam-Son]

Scares me from wanting to do my swap :/
Don't let this scare you My car does have 171,5xx miles on it and I'm known for being a little...rough with my car

[Sam-Son]

they may not have set the center bearing preload correctly?
Forgive me but I don't know what this means

[Torque]

Forgive me but I don't know what this means
There are 2 bolts under it and 2 slider channels ... the whole driveshaft/center bearing can be moved back and forth to adjust the preload.

However, in your case, (if this is what we're suspecting), it sounds more like a case of it coming loose than not being set correctly since it drove fine for a week.

[Sam-Son]

There are 2 bolts under it and 2 slider channels ... the whole driveshaft/center bearing can be moved back and forth to adjust the preload.

However, in your case, (if this is what we're suspecting), it sounds more like a case of it coming loose than not being set correctly since it drove fine for a week.
Hmm so can I continue driving it for a day or two until I can get it fixed?

[Torque]

I wouldn't. If that's the problem, your driveshaft is literally bouncing back and forth between the diff and tranny, as well as up and down with the whole carrier assembly ...

Get under there and check.

[Sam-Son]

I wouldn't. If that's the problem, your driveshaft is literally bouncing back and forth between the diff and tranny, as well as up and down with the whole carrier assembly ...

Get under there and check.
Hmm don't have a rack, or time, or another car. I have to drive it tomorrow to class. It seems to be fine in 3rd-5th. and ok in1st and 2nd if I baby it

[Torque]

No jack, jack stand and 5 minutes?

[gale]

My wife's e36 had a horrible vibration in the drivetrain. I was all set to replace the center bearing until I noticed on closer inspection that it had thrown one of the guibo bolts. I replaced the missing bolt and all is good. They can be a bugger to get a wrench on it to tighten and they need to be torqued to 74 ft-lbs & best to use Loctite. Perhaps the shop installed used bolts & locknuts?

[Sam-Son]

No jack, jack stand and 5 minutes?
For some reason there's a floor jack in my garage with no handle and no way to crank it up. not to mention even if I did have a lift I really don't have 5 minutes I'm really really really pressed for time. Would it be that obvious what's broken under there?
By the way thanks for all the help and the quick responses I realy appreciate it

[Sam-Son]

Well depsite what I was told I drove it any way I did fine not great but fine enough. The flexdisc is shot and I found something else out the rear seal on the tranny is leaking. so now I'm without my E34 again. I'd just like to say that the Eurodepot is making good on the problem though even though I'm in NY and they're based in NH. they're stand up guys I still recommend them to anyone

[Ross]

Good that it is minor.
Disappointing that the external seals and tired joint were not changed as part of the swap. The cost would have been parts plus very little labor.

[gale]

. . . I found something else out the rear seal on the tranny is leaking . . .

Yeah, same with mine. I couldn't get the output yoke off the trans on the bench so flipped a coin & decided take a chance on the donor trans. Turned out it started leaking like a sieve a month or so later. It was a real b*tch getting the nut off the yoke, even with it in the car, took alot of heat to break down the Loctite that was on the threads.

Good to hear Euro Depot is taking care of it. I guess the moral of the story is for all considering doing a swap: use a new guibo. When I converted mine, I bought new for all of the normal wear items -- clutch, master/slave cyl's. guibo, shift linkage, etc. Some of that can be a real pain to go in & replace the 2nd time. I also had to take the donor diff out & replace the input shaft seal a few weeks after doing the swap, it was literally pumping gear oil out of it.

[Sam-Son]

I replaced the flexdisc so I'm not sure how it could've worn out so fast?

[gale]

I replaced the flexdisc so I'm not sure how it could've worn out so fast?

The flexdisc ("guibo") has arrows moulded into rubber that point to the respective lugs on the transmission yoke and driveshaft flange. If it were installed clocked one hole off, it will prematurely self-destruct. If the rear trans seal were leaking fluid and soaked the flexdisc, then it will fail all the sooner.

[Sam-Son]

The flexdisc ("guibo") has arrows moulded into rubber that point to the respective lugs on the transmission yoke and driveshaft flange. If it were installed clocked one hole off, it will prematurely self-destruct. If the rear trans seal were leaking fluid and soaked the flexdisc, then it will fail all the sooner.
Any sort of driving that will cause it to wear prematurely

[gale]

Any sort of driving that will cause it to wear prematurely

If it were installed correctly, then doing burnouts in reverse would stress it but I don't think you would have been doing that. My 7 uses the same guibo as yours, 26117511454 & it's a heavier car. I drove the piss out of it the 1st few months after the conversion (and still do) and layed about 20 feet of twin tracks of rubber up the driveway the 1st nite, with the 4.27 LSD. If the guibo were going to fail from abuse, it would have happened by now, some 17k miles later.

There are a few other possibilities:

1. Did they replace the pilot bearing in the tip of the driveshaft, it centers the driveshaft with respect to the transmission output yoke. If it's sloppy, the guibo could get stressed radially but hard to believe it would fail due to that in such a short period of time.

2. Bentley shows how to align the driveshaft by measuring the distance on either side from the driveshaft to the tunnel. The rear trans crossmember has slotted holes to align it. If it's off to one side, then that could tweak the guibo. If the trans mounts or motor mounts need replacing, it could be off in the vertical plane and/or lateral direction.

3. The auto vs. manual diff flanges and rear driveshaft CV joints are different. The manual diff flange is about 3/8" longer. If the shop diddled with the diff & rear half of the driveshaft, it could possibly be stretching the guibo rearward. My driveshaft was about 3/8" too short at the rear so I had to tug on the CV joint to get it to mate up to the diff flange. The front half mated fine with the guibo & trans yoke and everything fit perfectly up front, but the rear isn't set up how it should be. It has been ok so far but could cause problems at any time. I'm just hoping the CV joint circlip doesn't pop off & let the splined end disengage from the driveshaft, while it flops around and beats the hell out of the underside of the floor, taking brake & fuel lines out with it. One of these days I need to buy the correct manual CV joint and put the manual diff flange on it to resolve it. Did they swap diff's on yours when they did the conversion?

[Sam-Son]

OK so I don't really have to worry about my driving affecting the life of my flexdisc...well...maybe but I'll worry about blowing a head gasket before I destroy the guibo.

[Torque]

The flexdisc ("guibo") has arrows moulded into rubber that point to the respective lugs on the transmission yoke and driveshaft flange. If it were installed clocked one hole off, it will prematurely self-destruct. If the rear trans seal were leaking fluid and soaked the flexdisc, then it will fail all the sooner.I highly doubt it would go that fast ... maybe 15k miles, but a week? Come on.

Besides, I don't really see how orientation, arrow aligning does anything as far as guibo is concerned. It's a chunk of rubber with 6 steel reinforced bolt holes.

[Ferret]

I highly doubt it would go that fast ... maybe 15k miles, but a week? Come on.

Besides, I don't really see how orientation, arrow aligning does anything as far as guibo is concerned. It's a chunk of rubber with 6 steel reinforced bolt holes.

The webbing inside a guibo is very specific, it has three groups of two bound holes in it:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/Car/guibo.jpg

You can clearly see that there is less rubber between some of the holes as there isnt any need for it! The problem is that if you reverse wheelspin it (like I did, whoops!) it's not designed for that kind of reverse stress and disintegrates!

[Torque]

Interesting. You learn something new every day; thanfully I aligned and faced mine correctly when I replaced it.

[Sam-Son]

Hmm thanks for the info. Any idea what would've caused the vibration in the shifter? I noticed that before I noticed the thudding from the rearend, so I think they might be different issues.