[s-cars] Bad time to work on driveshaft

[chris chambers]

Wayne;

local to me is a shop that specializes in springs and driveshafts.
Most of the work they do is on big equipment, think farm implements
and big rigs.

Seems to me there has to be a company like that near you that could
test out your driveshaft to see what the problem is.

If you don't see anything in the phonebook start by calling the
companies that sell/service large farming equipment, the accessories
for the tractors are quite often run using driveshafts.

Just trying to help
Chris


--- Wayne Dohnal <wd42 at hevanet.com> wrote:

> If you're thinking of working on your driveshaft you might want to
> put it 
> off for a couple of months.  Every rebuilder I located (Powertrain 
> Industries, Driveshaft Specialists, wholesaleimportparts.com) has no
> S-car 
> driveshafts available, and cannot rebuild most Audi driveshafts
> because they 
> used up their stock of CVs, and the replacements are backordered. 
> One of 
> them guessed for me that it will be at least a month.  If they don't
> use the 
> CVs from their own supplier, there's no driveshaft warranty.
> 
> The ordeal started when I decided to replace the center support and
> front CV 
> on my driveshaft as others have done.  After doing this and
> reassembling the 
> car, the driveshaft vibrated like crazy.  I pulled it back out and
> took it 
> to a driveshaft place.  They were unable to balance the center and
> diagnosed 
> the problem as a bad center u-joint (the non-replacable staked-in
> one). 
> It's got end play.  I didn't realize that a u-joint would fail in
> this way. 
> Now that I know what to look for, it's obvious.  My next step was a
> rebuilt 
> driveshaft (not!), which after looking at the rebuilders' web sites
> one 
> would think is readily available.
> 
> If I was able to start over, I'd order a rebuilt in the first place
> and not 
> taken the car apart until I actually had it.  There's at least a
> suggestion 
> here that the useful life of the center u-joint is 200k miles, which
> the car 
> is very close to.  If anybody is looking for a deal on a driveshaft
> CV with 
> about 5 miles on it, contact me.  I've also got the brand new center
> bearing 
> but, alas, I don't think it can be pulled off without destroying it. 
> A 
> couple of people have kindly offered to let me have or borrow a used 
> driveshaft but I don't ever want to be having to do this job again. 
> I may 
> very well leave the old gal in drydock until I can get the driveshaft
> fully 
> rebuilt.
> 
> Wayne Dohnal
> 1994 S4 
> 
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