drive axle bolts

mjbst111 · Aug 23, 2004

Hi all,

This weekend my buddy and I are going to pull my transmission and replace my clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bearing, slave cylinder, many seals, guibo, and upper drive axle carrier bearing mount.

The question: I was reading in the book that i need to get all new bolts for my axle on both ends becasue they are stretch bolts and need replaced each time. Is this true? Can i buy them anywhere? I know there are a few people here that have done driveline stuff. Can anyone advise?

Thanks!

xLibelle · Aug 23, 2004

what bolts? the only bolts i would worry about not using again are the ones you are likely to strip the heads on when removing the tranny from the engine block.
you can buy the bolts from bavauto for much cheaper than at the dealer. find my thread on what bolts im talking about by searching for tranny swap auto manual.

mjbst111 · Aug 24, 2004

the book says i need new bolts for the guibo and for the rear end of the drive shaft if i take it off..... true?

I guess its getting a little late for getting these for this weekend if i need them. Thats why i'm kind of hoping someone will tell me that i don't really need them. haha.

xLibelle · Aug 24, 2004

not true.
just be careful to not mess up the torx heads when removing the tranny

epj3 · Aug 24, 2004

xLibelle said:

He DOES have to replace the locknuts though. They aren't nylon locknuts, they are brass, so they can't exactly be reused.

But again - why would you not replace those 20 cent bolts? I did... I think it would be kind of stupid not to when you are under the car like that.

xLibelle · Aug 24, 2004

after eric posted, i still disagree, everything will be ok.
its up to you

epj3 · Aug 25, 2004

My question is why would you skimp out on $5 of parts?

mjbst111 · Aug 25, 2004

because i do not have them and i am doing the job this saturday. If I can pick some up at the local parts store then i'll get them, otherwise i'm shet out of luck. But i'll still take comfort in what xLibelle said. Can i get them anywhere?

Thanks for your help guys!

epj3 · Aug 25, 2004

mjbst111 said:

Dealer. Again, shouldnt be more than $5. If you ordered them from bavauto.com, they should be there by saturday. They ship fedex.

I have a feeling it's going to take you more than 1 day to do the job though... It took me 3 weeks to do the center support bearing, guibo, steering rack, steering hoses, control arms, and tie rods... The tie rods and control arms took a day to do.

I was very limited in my time (due to rain... I don't have a garage) but the one step you must take is you have to remove your exhaust. This along takes nearly a day, especially if it's rusted on like mine was. I had to remove the manifold from the block, then disconnect the exhaust from all its hangers, and then pull it up through the engine bay (as much as I could) so I could get to the downpipe and cut the manifold -> downpipe nuts off.

Obviously I had to buy new studs which were actually very easy to put back in, but I had to take my manifold to a machine ship, and have them drill out and re-tap the downpipe studs.

Then the driveshaft repairs themselves can be very hard. It's the little stuff you have to do that takes time, like removing all the stupid heatshield bolts.

Anyways, good luck. I don't think I would do the repairs again on my own in a driveway - I would want to borrow someone's garage. I wouldn't limit myself to a day or two if I were you though. I doubt you'd have it done in a weekend (unless you don't run into some of the problems I did).

jrt67ss350 · Aug 25, 2004

Keep in mind it also may take a long time to get those bellhousing to engine block bolts out. I had my clutch replaced several months ago and the mechanic spent an entire day just getting the top two bellhousing bolts out. And this guy is experienced with working on these cars. I know that those bolts are in very tight, and there is next to no clearance between the firewall and those top two bolts. I think he actually may have ended up dropping the front motor mounts in order to lower the engine some more to gain some clearance.

mjbst111 · Aug 25, 2004

i'm really hoping i can do it in 2 days at the most. realizing that this will be the most difficult transmission job yet, we have done acura's, vw's, crysler minivans, labarons, and sunfire jobs before. We have all day saturday and sunday so i'm hoping for the best. I will let you know how it turns out. I am looking forward to doing it all. I'm sure something major will go wrong. Something always happens when you are cramped for time. I could use a lift, but i don't think i'm going to. I like doing transmissions on the floor.

thanks for all the input and things i can expect.

xLibelle · Aug 25, 2004

obviously NO ONE read my how-to on changing the tranny!!!

7 hours tear-down, 7 build up (and that was an auto down, manual up)
Working with the drive shaft takes all of an hour which includes installation as well, unless you are a wrench-idiot. the air ratchet handles the heat shield bolts in less than a second each.
about getting to the top two tranny bolts, my suggestion is to tilt the engine back. i used latched straps hooked to front i-loop of engine to rear hood latches and cranked em down. also i had a crobar inside the motor mount bar, yanked down on that and tied it down too.
tearing everything down, you will figure out a better way to put it together.

have fun man. feet first is the way to go!

knightpitt · Aug 25, 2004

It's an E30, you'll get it done in a day if you don't break anything. Just prepare for a long day. From the sounds of it, you have a pretty fair amount of experience with doing these jobs, so you probably won't be seeing too much new. Just remember to have those external torx sockets (noone that I know of, not even VW, uses those) ready for those engine->tranny bolts.

And, to answer your original question, I'd stop by the dealer to pick up those bolts or nuts or whatever. It couldn't really hurt. I mean, a trip over there, and couple of bucks won't hurt too much. Besides, those brandy new shiney bolts add horsepower. Bona-fide!

mjbst111 · Aug 30, 2004

well, turns out the job went better than I thought it would.

Got the transmission out but had 3 problems from there:

1. Can't find anyone that sells a 30 mm thin walled deep socket or wrench anywhere. I need to replace my output shaft seal on my tranny but till i find someone to sell one of those i'm stuck.

2. I was sent the wrong linkage seal. (had a heck of a time getting the old seal out too. Thing is so tiny!

3. forgot to buy a rear main seal for the engine (might as well change it while i'm in there.)

Other than that, pulling the transmission is not bad at all. Exhaust came right down, heat sheilds right down, axle right off, Gear selector console ( the top one) was a bear (who would have known there's this latch thingy you just lift up) But the tranny bolts weren't that bad once you lift the front of the engine a bit to dip the transmission.

I feel like replacing my starter while i have the chance, just so i won't have to in the future.... man that thing would be ridiculous to change by itself.

my guibo was definitely toast, throwout bearing definitely toast, alot of seals are toast, clutch actually wasn't too bad.

Maybe because my car is in pretty good shape underneath, the job wasn't bad at all. We worked on it from 8:30 to about 6 (with cleanup and doing a very meticulous job). Have to get those seals and we'll throw it all back in saturday. It was a fun job!

epj3 · Aug 30, 2004

xLibelle said:

I'm not sure if you're responding to me but I didn't say it took me that long to get the driveshaft down - that WAS an easy part (loosening the expansion joint and then removing the driveshaft from the guibo). The hard part was getting the exhaust off.

drive axle bolts

mjbst111

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xLibelle

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mjbst111

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xLibelle

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epj3

Senior Member

xLibelle

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epj3

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mjbst111

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epj3

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jrt67ss350

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mjbst111

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xLibelle

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knightpitt

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mjbst111

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epj3

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