2-Piece Front Drive Shaft
 

There is a guy that make and sells 2- piece front drive shaft so that you dont have to deal with removing the transfer case to change the flex disc.
Any one has one and how do you like it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B4uRLruWCU

Not an approved procedure by BMW to replace a driveshaft. Looks like a redneck way to fix a BMW and there will be more people repairing their BMWs by redneck methods as the price of these SAV comes down in prices. Glad I'm no longer in the market for a BMW X5.

Actually this is a result of a related problem - Having to extend the drive shaft spline. And when you extend the spline then you can't easily remove the front flex disc unless you unbolt the TC. To do that you need to remove the rear flex disc. And if you can't remove it after all that then the TC needs to come down.

This is not a red neck solution at all and someone thought about it..

So using a Sawzall to remove a driveshaft isn't a redneck repair? Don't know which neck of the wood you are from, but from my neck of the woods that would be labeled a "Redneck" repair.

I'm ordering one.

Relax. Sawzall is just a tool. Maybe it was stuck. Who knows?
Heck, we all have used tools like sledge hammer, power drill, crazy glue, duck tape, tie wraps, etc. to fix our BMW and keep it on the road... :chopper:

If you are ordering one for real, please report back? :thumbup:

Not cheap - $600+ for fully built one and $300 + for weld you own.

Good day all!!

While I think the original design needs help, I will say that I have not seen a properly maintained OEM shaft with the good seal on the transfer case side fail... Granted, it could use a little more bite and as such I install washers on the guibo to extend the driveshaft into the transfer case that extra little bit... Moreover, I pulled a "modified extended" version from my transfer case shortly after purchase... This front drive shaft, that was made specifically to eliminate the failure of the OEM version, is the reason I only paid $3000 for the vehicle... It was chewed up beyond recognition... Slightly harder metal than aluminium as far as I could tell... The splines in the OEM transfer case were undamaged... I left the transfer case in the vehicle and installed my $50 driveshaft... OEM version with extending washer...

Additionally, I just had a custom driveshaft made by Carolina Driveline of Spartanburg to eliminate the transfer case in my 2001 RWD 6-speed 4.4L... It cost me all of $168 ready to install... So, I think I would shop around for something a little more reasonable, IF you absolutely had to go this route... Obviously, I'm not against customization... But..... Ummmmmmmmmm....

Cheers all!!!

May be something vital about the washer fix; the wear that can round off the splines can only come from in and out motion. Adding the washers will use the rubber in the giubo (JOO-boh for those of us that just learned that weird today) as a compression spring to hold the shaft aftward into the transfer case to keep the in and out motion to a minimum. It's not the unnecessary "extra bite"; the splines are long enough, it's the elimination of the in and out sawing action that will extend the life of the splines. No motion, no wear. It adds more work to the giubo which in turn will make it wear faster but they are obviously made pretty tough!

I'm sold. I will add washers the next time I'm working under mine and wife's e53.

My ¢¢ on the sawzall discussion. A non-red neck would have used an angle grinder or a band saw I suppose. In that particular case I think he was making a new "blank" for the next 2-part drive shaft. It was oddly specific. Why would you have to cut in a particular place of you are going to replace it?

It seems just a tutorial for how to avoid removing the giubo when replacing the shaft but also making a "core" you can send in to get a discount on the two-part shaft.

If you can remove the giubo and make enough room to pull the drive shaft then that sounds like a lot less work. The only reason I could see to use an extended length spline is if the spline inside is damaged.

(Can somebody chime in and confirm that the shaft can or can't be replaced by removing the giubo) it would explain the relatively short spline length on the shaft.

My drive shaft made it 154,000 mi. so far. If the splines are good I'll add some washers if I can detect any slop in and out and I should be good forever. They will only wear with relative motion.

If there is angular slop then I'll get an OEM equivalent shaft and install with washers if the giubo isn't already tight at the onset.

Back to the washers. It would seem there is an engineering oversight. The drive shaft was probably engineered with the telescoping action to be there when there is relative motion between the transfer case and front differential but the extent of wear was not accurately determined or Bmw was happy with 100-200,000 mi lifespan of the part.

Will the extra force from the washers just cause the seal to wear? How much relative motion is there in and out from body twist and engine torque? Maybe the washers won't help if it just means the rubber seal acts like a thrust bushing until it wears out and then allows relative motion again.


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Good day all!!

I had actually commented on this again... It has been deleted and replaced with what you are reading now...

The idea to make a 2-piece front driveshaft in this thread is so you don't need to remove the transfer case in order to get the drive shaft out...

Ummmmmmm.... You don't need to remove the transfer case to remove the drive shaft... If you know how it goes together...

Save your money spent on this and buy the repair manual...

Good luck all!!

Cheers!!!