For Goodness Sake, Drive shaft is too short!

[sierra9260 4]

About 9 months ago I bought a drive shaft off these forums from a pleasant fella for a manual conversion as the utter dim wit I bought the kit off on trademe put one accross me and never included it. I have checked real OEM and it it seems the shaft I need is 1526mm long. I discussed the length and things with the fella from here and we both agreed it should be long enough, I am not by any means blaming him. I am running a 1990 M20 with a getrag 240 gear box. Now I put the old auto one next to this manual one and the manual one is significantly longer. Right now after all this time I am doing the work on the car so today I go to put the drive shaft in and it is a fraction too short. I have no idea whats going on.

The front segment of the driveshaft lines up perfectly with the hanger mounting bolts but it seems like the rear segment is slightly too short.

Really scratching my head over this one....

Any help appreciated.

[Ahmedsinc 414]

I ran into the same ballache when I converted my E36 to manual. Brent helpfully pointed out there's a big nut right about where the splined end of the front half slides into the back half. Spin it a few times (bout 10mm thread on my one) & magically the driveshaft will lengthen! No idea if this applies for E30s but it's worth a go Apparently they were all made that way so as not to need a different part between coupes & sedans, sedan driveshafts seem to be about 18mm longer, no idea why though.

Good luck!

[BM WORLD 1283]

they slide in the middle ?? have you checked that??

rear length maybe different between small and medium case diffs

[sierra9260 4]

Thanks Ahmed, I'll check that out, its good to know a few tips and have some direction at least. And Brent thats a good point, its only short by such a small fraction. It did run through my mind that it could be the size of my diff making it seem shorter. I have pulled it apart and shifted it down the splines a little to line up with the diff. Hopefully it won't cause any problems running like that....

[Ahmedsinc 414]

Thanks Ahmed, I'll check that out, its good to know a few tips and have some direction at least. And Brent thats a good point, its only short by such a small fraction. It did run through my mind that it could be the size of my diff making it seem shorter. I have pulled it apart and shifted it down the splines a little to line up with the diff. Hopefully it won't cause any problems running like that....

Brent gave me the same advice when I did my conversion. Have looked under the car a couple of times since & the prop shaft is showing no signs of doing anything it shouldn't. Again, I have no idea if the same will apply for an E30, but it worked for me.