Still screwed - Update

[Jeff in MN]

Ended up pulling the rear exhaust manfold and moving it to the basement so I could have some elbow room. The old stud is Unbelievably stuck, heated the snot out of it, clamped the 1" stub of the stud in my 6" vice and torqued to the max. All it did was twist off. Moved over to the drill press and began Plan B. Drilled out to within a 32nd of the threads and tried picking the remants - No success. These two metals must have fused. Later tonight or tomorrow I am going to drill bigger hole and go with the bolt and nut option. (Fyi - I bought a replacement stud this am from the stealer - $9.00 each - holy crap. That one is going back next week.)

Oh, got the drive shaft out. (looks nothing like Bently pics) I am screwed here too. Not only is the center support shot, the front U-joint has a lot of play too. Looks like I'll order from the Driveshaftstore for about $360.

I am beat. Hope tomorrow goes better.

Thanks.

[Jehu]

Hey,look at the bright side.At least I'm not in your shoes..... no, seriously,you'll get 'er done fine. I am facing doing my heater core and its beginning to drop into New England Winter weather here finally.Cold,cloudy and rainy. No snow yet but still i'm looking at a job that takes most of a day and doing it all outside, at least you've got a basement and tools..

[Felixdacat]

The U-joints can't be pressed out of the driveshaft? I haven't looked at mine, but not very many cars have one piece u-joints and shafts.

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

can be rebuilt

[Felixdacat]

Now the question is. Did you bend the shaft? If so, then it will need to be replaced. Before you spend all this money on a new driveshaft, take to a axle repair shop, and have them see if it is bent or badly damaged. If so, I would try a junkyard first. Maybe $50 instead of $300. My .02

[Jeff in MN]

Great picture. I was wondering what bolt #6 did and was unsure about how to get the support bearing out. I am feeling the urge to head to the basement and disassemble. If I can get it appart, then I will take a hard look at putting in a new u-joint at position one. The center u's are great and the cv at the end has very little play.

[Jeff in MN]

Thanks for the sanity check. The DS is in good condition. It ran very smooth until the centersupport finally crapped out and there are no marks or dents etc.. As said below, I am headed to the basement. :-)

[Jeff in MN]

Working outside is a bear. 2 years ago I replaced the fuel tank in my e28, it was 10 degrees outside and about 25 in the garage, but there was not wind chill. :-)

[Rus]

Bolt number 6 holds the two halves of the shaft together. Its a royal pain to loosen because there is almost no room to turn a wrench inside the u-joint. Unless you have a good vice, you'll need a helper to loosen it (I used my 220+lb little brother). Also, it is possible to make the u-joints replaceable. A good driveshaft shop can retrofit replaceable joints in place of the BMW originals. I believe Shogun might have a link for this procedure (or rather I know he does ) Try PM'ing him if he doesn't catch this post as he is more than likely a key to some info on this. HTH

[Jeff in MN]

Success at last. New drive shaft arrived on Wednesday. Got the drive shaft from these guys http://www.wholesaleimportparts.com/driveshafts.php ... In the mean time I drilled out the busted stud and replaced it with a stainless bolt and nut combo from Ace Hardware for about a buck. Tomorrow I will return the $9.00 stud I bought from bmw. I put the drive shaft in yesterday spending an extra hour verifying the alignment. Exhaust system and everthing else went back in this morning. The key for a smooth out/in on the exhaust was finding the balance point and using my floor jack to move it up and down. I hit the road around noon and everthing checked out - no vibrations, everything smooth and quite. Car feels good, but man am I sore.