How on earth have you guys replaced the drive shaft centre bearing!!??

[British-Audifan]

So this PITA job is done! I got a used drive shaft from a manual car that had a 'C' clip style attachment on the centre UJ! Which made life a whole lot easier I still couldn't get the centre bearing off, so took it to Arizona Driveshaft, and had them install the new 034 centre bearing, and re-assemble the whole thing! The best $45 I've spent in a while
But interesting that there are different drive shafts out there. And being that it's for a manual car, I could get rid of that nasty, heavy and leaking spacer that Audis4parts gave me.
And my cheap drive shaft alignment tool work well. My drive shaft wasn't correctly aligned! So that might of caused the bearing to fail. Happy to be on the road again





My set up tool



I've been having a high frequency vibrations on my A6 since the 6 speed conversation was completed, along with hot grease smells from time to time. Well, on Sunday it started getting worse! And banging as I was pulling away from a standstill. I found that the bolts that attach the front of the drive shaft to the spacer the guys down in Tucson installed instead of using a prop shaft from a manual car were loose!! That's were the grease was coming from! And the two centre bearing bolts were also loose, and the bearing assembly was off centre!! So now the centre bearing looks and feels shot So I have a replacement centre bearing from a friend, but can we get that 17mm bolt undone!? No we can't. I don't see how you can get anything in there to remove it? The open end of a wrench/spanner, is way to wide, so I cut it down in size, but then it just broke. There isn't enough clearance to get the ring end of the wrench passed the end of the bolt!

I took it to a drive shaft shop today, and they couldn't do it either! So how have you guys done this?? Perhaps the only difference between a manual and auto drive shaft is that part of the UJ? Makes sense to only have to design two small parts, and keep the rest common between all A6's?

Does the drive shaft on a manual car have more clearance in the UJ? Here is a photo of mine....

[andyrew]

Did it on my A4... Lots of heat, cursing, and fire involved. In the end I dont think it did anything (I was fixing a clunk from the torn diaphram). If you can find an entire new driveshaft or get a shop to do it, do it. Its not worth the work.

[julex]

I've been having a high frequency vibrations on my A6 since the 6 speed conversation was completed, along with hot grease smells from time to time. Well, on Sunday it started getting worse! And banging as I was pulling away from a standstill. I found that the bolts that attach the front of the drive shaft to the spacer the guys down in Tucson installed instead of using a prop shaft from a manual car were loose!! That's were the grease was coming from! And the two centre bearing bolts were also loose, and the bearing assembly was off centre!! So now the centre bearing looks and feels shot So I have a replacement centre bearing from a friend, but can we get that 17mm bolt undone!? No we can't. I don't see how you can get anything in there to remove it? The open end of a wrench/spanner, is way to wide, so I cut it down in size, but then it just broke. There isn't enough clearance to get the ring end of the wrench passed the end of the bolt!

I took it to a drive shaft shop today, and they couldn't do it either! So how have you guys done this?? Perhaps the only difference between a manual and auto drive shaft is that part of the UJ? Makes sense to only have to design two small parts, and keep the rest common between all A6's?

Does the drive shaft on a manual car have more clearance in the UJ? Here is a photo of mine....

Grind down the ring side of wrench (make is thinner).

[Scotty@Advanced]

It's extremely difficult but possible. You need to make a wrench and hope the yoke isn't pressed onto the shaft with too much pressure.

[vwjunkie]

You will need to be sure you mark both halves so that it is not clocked out of alignment when reinstalled. I ended up replacing my nut with a stud and bolt. Its virtually impossible to torque it correctly.

[Racin2redline]

I'm all for doing everything myself ...but for this job ( and the fact I have a non serviceable shaft) I would throw my money at a new one

[British-Audifan]

I did grind down the ring side of a wrench to get it passed the bolt, but the wrench broke! In fact, I've broken 3 wrenches on this job And so did a company called Arizona Driveshaft and Diff' in Mesa!! I have a replacement driveshaft arriving today! But, I'm going to start saving for one of Scotty's one piece carbon driveshafts! Not going through this shit again!!

Thanks guys, Paul..

[Mooseimage]

I thought the driveshaft on our cars are considered unserviceable. You have the cv joints at the ends, and the center has the u joint but no clips that one would remove to disassemble the shafts and service or rrplace the bearing in there (forgot it's proper term).

Wrong, or intention of audi to do so but people are finding ways of doing this? I always thought on our cars that if the shaft got damaged or the u joint damaged, we have no choice but to replace the whole shaft assembly.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[Nogaro Nitwit]

In case others haven't seen it, 034 Motorsports makes the center bearing for the driveshafts for the C5 chassis and allroad.

034 Motorsports center bearing for C5 Chassis

034 Motorsports center bearing for allroad

[vwjunkie]

In case others haven't seen it, 034 Motorsports makes the center bearing for the driveshafts for the C5 chassis and allroad.

034 Motorsports center bearing for C5 Chassis

034 Motorsports center bearing for allroad

After finding these for sale a few years ago I too thought it was a cheap fix. Having actually replaced mine after buying these parts, I can say that the shaft is not designed to be serviceable, it can be service after a lot of work, frustration, and time, and in the long run, is not worth doing. By the time I finally got my bearing swapped and the shaft installed, I was just a few bucks shy of a replacement shaft that would have cut the time down to a few hours at best. It was a total pain in the butt and I will never do it again. The shaft was not designed to be serviced and it really shows when you attempt to do it.

[British-Audifan]

So my question is, where is the best place to get a replacement driveshaft from? $1800 from my local stealership! A rip off price...

Paul

[Scotty@Advanced]

I can get new aftermarket articulated shafts. They run $695-$795.00

Scott

[vwjunkie]

Another option is to look for a local drive shaft specialty shop.

[British-Audifan]

Update at the top

[Racin2redline]

Nice. I have the same type of driveshaft. I haven't had a real good chance to look at it...was TOLD it was unserviceable because of the C clip, haven't tried myself I yet... LOL cool to see it can be done tho

[Scotty@Advanced]

The shafts with the c clip are not serviceable at least not by the average DIY'er..

The clip is pressed in under alot of pressure, so you can't get it out.. And if you manage to get it out, you can't get it back in. You need a press and fixture to remove that clip.

[British-Audifan]

The shafts with the c clip are not serviceable at least not by the average DIY'er..

The clip is pressed in under alot of pressure, so you can't get it out.. And if you manage to get it out, you can't get it back in. You need a press and fixture to remove that clip.

It wasn't that bad to remove, maybe 10 minutes and I had pulled the rear haft of the drive shaft out. After marking 3 splines. Arizona driveshafts put it back together, so I didn't go through that pain
Audi is quiet right, none of these are servicable! And I won't do it again!! Next time Scott, I'll be purchasing one of your carbon one peice jobbies

Paul...