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I'm happy to say the new front shaft fits better than the one I had in there previously. The old shaft was an all new piece, left the dust seal so far back the spline to TX case interface was exposed, which left me to ask what the point of it was anyway. The new shaft, which is an OE item that has had the old splines cut off and a new end welded in, both positions the dust seal where it should be, and has MUCH deeper spline engagement. The new shaft is about 6-8mm longer overall. I do wonder about the front flex disc, however. Anyone with a BMW of any kind has heard it said again and again that you MUST counterhold the bolt and turn the nut (which is against the drive flange of either the output shaft or the driveshaft), with the aim being to not subject the steel inserts in the flex disc to the torsional stresses of torquing the fasteners. On the front driveshaft this is impossible, as there are NO nuts on the differential side, with the drive flange having threaded holes, and yet it's completely glossed over in my Bentley manual, and TIS. I attached a picture from Pelican's site to illustrate this (even they don't say a word about it). The most I can figure to do is put a dab of anti-seize on the heads of the bolts so they're as slippery as possible. I will also use blue Loctite on the threads because there are no locking nuts. Does this all sound correct?
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