e30 Shift selector rod front knuckle joint

[bravo 34]

Centre driveshaft hanger and bearing has gone. Driveshaft is off, and bearing and hanger is in the mail. Whilst under there I thought I'd try and remove some of my gearshift slop by replacing the front knuckle joint where all the slop seems to come from.

My parts guy quoted somewhere around the $90 for that part! The whole driveshaft bearing and hanger are only $110!!

Anyone know where I can get one from a bit cheaper?

Cheers.

[Carl 3]

Yeah the knuckle isn't a cheap part but you'll definately want to replace it as it'll tighten up that slop to no end.

It's a fiddly c**t of a job to do but you'll love yourself all night for doing it. You might aswell do the oil seal behind it while you're there aswell.

[bravo 34]

Looking at using some brass shim to make a bush instead of replacing the knuckle - I still only have one hand - 3 hours to jack the car (c**t of a job with one hand and using bottle jacks - need to buy a trolley jack), remove exhaust and driveshaft etc to replace hanger bearing - will take about the same to refit methinks. :mosh: So I'll try the shim idea, and if that don't work I'll do it all when I replace the diff next year.

Damn expensive piece of metal that!!!

Edited November 29, 2005 by bravomikewhiskey

[Carl 3]

You shouldn't have to remove the exhaust to do the centre bearing...and just replace the knuckle you tight bastard

[bravo 34]

I have heatsheilding over the center bearing - so yeah exhaust has to come off. - prob could have squeezed a hand in there and done it without removing exhaust if one hand wasn't in plaster, but it is...

Tight - damn right! xmas is upon us and I have high-maintenance friends/family. Greedy little f**kers/bitches.

[nz320i 0]

hey mike,

i have the same prob with the sloppyness. you can do the job without taking the gearbox off right?

and i have a feeling one day my centre bearing will do the same as yours, but i hope its only the diff.

also have heat sheilding, im not confident with doing all the work myself, is it very hard???

I have the jack out the the boot of my car and some blocks of wood!!? good enough??

Thanks

[bravo 34]

you can do the job without taking the gearbox off right?

Yep - gearbox stays on.

and i have a feeling one day my centre bearing will do the same as yours, but i hope its only the diff.

I only think its the bearing as that seemed to be where the noise was coming from. The rubber surround cracked when I tried to inspect it when I pulled it off, and the bearing (although quiet) looked pretty sad. It may have even been turning in the surround...'

So the new one went on last night. While there I did an oil change, so picking up an oil filter etc tonight, so will test drive tonight to see if the problem is fixed.

I ever got any brass shim stock, so just put that lot back on sloppy and all till next time when I'll prob replace the knuckle.

lso have heat sheilding, im not confident with doing all the work myself, is it very hard???

piece of cake. Unbolt four flange bolts attaching exhaust to headers (need 14mm socket with extension. universal helps on hard to reach ones), undo two muffler clamps holding rear muffler (13mm socket), un hook exhaust from rubber hangers and remove.

Undo 8 exhaust sheild bolts (6x 13mm 2x 10mm) and remove.

Undo three guibo bolts (17mm socket 17mm combo spanner to hold nut behind) If you undo the ones on the g/box output flange instead of the driveshaft input flange it'll make your life easier.

Undo 4x17mm rear driveshaft flange bolts holding onto the diff.

Loosen the large cap between the front and rear driveshaft (use a massive crescent or a stilson works fine) then you can drop the shaft out with a bit of wiggling.

Undo 2x 13mm hanger bearing bolts.

Undo circlips on shift selector rod and remove. knuckle then comes off by unclipping the tension bush holding it onto the g/b, undoing the sheet metal console by undoing the two 8mm allen bolts will give you more room.

Insallation is reverse of removal

You will need decent jacks and axle stands - the vehicle jack and some blocks of wood won't cut the mustard.

Edited November 30, 2005 by bravomikewhiskey

[Carl 3]

You don't need to take exhaust off, you can take the heat shielding off with the exhaust still on and replace the centre bearing housing, it's a little trickier but saves time mucking about with the exhaust.

[bravo 34]

true - must try tht nxt time.

[topless 5]

Loosen the large cap between the front and rear driveshaft (use a massive crescent or a stilson works fine) then you can drop the shaft out with a bit of wiggling.

Be careful you don't separate the shafts in the middle when you are pulling away to get it out. If you do separate them, you need to put them back together the same way or you will probably get vibrations from a now out-of-balance shaft.

[bravo 34]

maybe that is part of my prob then - i had trouble putting them back together once - they have a guide spline, but maybe it can go more than one way around.

Any ideas on how to figure out which way it should go?

Had to pull them apart to replace bearing of course......

[bravo 34]

Hold on - each part of the shaft has its own balance weight - shouldn't cause too much of an issue as each piece is balanced either side of the hanger bearing.

[topless 5]

Shaft is balanced as a complete unit. Universals need to be aligned too. I think the alignment of the uv's is more important as i have mixed and matched propshafts before and not really had a balance problem with them but have always taken pains to align the uv's.

[Carl 3]

Universals need to be correctly positioned, not sure what the phase should be though, just make sure that if you take it apart you record how to put it back together.

[topless 5]

Pic showing how the uv's shoukd be aligned. Have drawn a yellow line showing they are straight along the length of the prop and 2 details showing the position of each uv in relation to the line.

Edited December 1, 2005 by topless

[bravo 34]

Yeah, knew about the universals. Thanks.

Edit - just realised, according to my bentley, the correct orientation is the top pic, wrong in bottom. Unfrtunately I had them as in the bottom as thats what I thought it should be like, so its gotta come off again. hope fully no damage caused over the 1000 or so kms I've done in the meantime. 200km to go and I'm home and can swap it over - man I'm getting good at removing the shaft - still have to undo manifold flange bolts carl, but can leave rest of exhaust attached.

Edited December 4, 2005 by bravomikewhiskey