5KSQ Driveshaft Bearing Replacement

[Joshua Van tol]

On Monday, September 9, 2002, at 07:13  PM, james accordino wrote:

>
> O.K.  They tell me that AEC out of Ohio is out of
> business. That's O.K. too.  Usually, unless there has
> been a VERY long period without having the U-Joint
> greased, it SHOULD be O.K.  Remove it from the shaft
> VERY carefully using plenty of lube and lots of rust
> reduction techniques around the areas you'll be
> pressing the caps through.  I was able to remove my
> rusty mess totally intact by using these techniques
> and being very careful.  This is the 1 item you really
> want to save if you can.  Everything else in the
> previous mail is still valid AFAIK.  My rebuild has
> close to 40k on it and it's fine.
>
> Jim Accordino
>

AEC is lost and gone forever. However, I did find another replacement.
Below is my post to the list announcing my discovery. I did not find it
easy to preserve my old joint btw, as the rollers do tend to go
everywhere when you take the joint apart. The new BMW part was very
nice, if expensive, and easier to work with than the audi one because
it had seals that didn't have to be removed (and slid up onto the cross
piece prior to installation of the cup) before installing the cup.  I
have about 10k on my rebuild shaft with new bearing, carrier, u-joint,
and cv joints. All is fine. Just be extremely careful about marking the
orientation of the driveshaft yoke to the one half of the shaft, and
the orientation of the shaft halves to each other, or you'll be paying
a visit to a balancing shop. I got mine 180 degrees out of phase and it
shook like an unbalanced washing machine until I took it apart and
rotated it 180 degrees. Fortunately I had properly marked the yoke or I
never would have gotten it right.

> A week or so ago, I posted to the list that I'd found a BWM part
> number that works as a replacement for the center driveshaft u-joint
> on a 5kq. I finally got the number from my friend, and here it is.
>
> Part # 33-21-1-205-310
>
> I'm assuming this is a BMW part number, and it fits an early bmw 2002
> rear half shaft application. As I recall, I paid about $70 for mine,
> which is steep, but it was available.