Rear Drive Shaft Removal Method

TheDan · Post by **TheDan** » Wed Mar 22, 2023 7:10 pm

Hey all,

Next weekend I am going to attempt to replace my E85's rear wheel bearings and hubs. This typically means removing both drive shafts completely by undoing them from the diff output flange and sliding them out. For the left drive shaft this usually involves having to remove/lower the exhaust and for both sides detaching the ARB drop links.

I don't want to do this method because I hate to get fully under the car on my gravel driveway with the car on axle stands (no brainer really). Instead I am going to leave the drive shafts attached at the diff output flanges and undo the 3 bolts on the trailing arm for the lower arm, upper arm and damper. This should allow me to lever the trailing arm outboard and manoeuvre the driveshaft out of the bearing. I will be removing the handbrake shoes beforehand anyway, so the cable shouldn't be an issue.

Does anyone think this is a terrible idea or can foresee something going wrong? Or will the method above genuinely make this job possible without having to get fully under the car?

patriot66 · Post by **patriot66** » Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:56 pm

Personally, I'd get 4 decent flag stones and put them on the gravel as a base for the axle stands. My previous house had a gravel drive and parking area (never again !

) and I used this method regularly without issue. Safe as houses

PDJ · Post by **PDJ** » Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:59 pm

From memory this will not work

The drive shafts on my Z4M and my 120d need to be pushed out of the hubs

So you need to remove them from the diff then push them out of the hub then you can remove the rear trailing arm

Hope you have a good press of someone lined up to press the bearings out as on my Z I had to give in and get a garage that is set up to do them for me

TheDan · Post by **TheDan** » Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:10 pm

Thanks for your input guys, much appreciated

patriot66 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:56 pm Personally, I'd get 4 decent flag stones and put them on the gravel as a base for the axle stands. My previous house had a gravel drive and parking area (never again ! ) and I used this method regularly without issue. Safe as houses

Yeah I have 2 for when I jack up the front or rear, but it still just doesn't seem fully secure to me. Ideally I'd get it on a 2 post and do this as it would make it a doddle.

PDJ wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:59 pm From memory this will not work

The drive shafts on my Z4M and my 120d need to be pushed out of the hubs

So you need to remove them from the diff then push them out of the hub then you can remove the rear trailing arm

Hope you have a good press of someone lined up to press the bearings out as on my Z I had to give in and get a garage that is set up to do them for me

I can borrow a good heavy duty hydraulic press and puller tool from a mate, so getting the things out aren't my worry.

If it's up to the job, I was planning on undoing the axle nut and pulling the hub off with the drive shaft still in (using the end of the drive shaft as the point to push from). Not sure if this will work, but if I can get the hub off with the drive shaft in situ then it will just be loose in the bearing and the method in the first post might then have a chance of working. Or do you think it still wont?

raymond.harper · Post by **raymond.harper** » Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:24 pm

On the videos on youtube of BMWs of a similar era, they all remove the driveshaft. I have been under many cars in my lifetime and I find the safest method is to just raise one side and work on that side only. Place the axle stands then remove the roadwheel on the rear and place it under the car. Therefore should the car "fall over" the alloy wheel will save you. In the picture, I am working under a very heavy SLK and you can see the wheel under the car.

PDJ · Post by **PDJ** » Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:26 pm

The drive shaft is normally very tight

The indy I gave my rear trailing arms to with it as an assembly said I had made it 10 times harder by removing it from the car as they where set up to do it on the car

If you do it the let's say the normal way if it is too tight for the puller you just put the wheel back on and drive it to an indy and give them the problem. If you have removed the rear trailing arm and other bits from the car it is a bit harder to get it to an indy garage

PDJ · Post by **PDJ** » Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:30 pm

First issue is getting the hub nut off you may have to chisel it off or cut it

You would be as well to get 2 new ones before you start the job so you can replace them and still drive the car if you fail to get it apart

AndyJ1 · Post by **AndyJ1** » Thu Mar 23, 2023 12:26 am

I tackled this job last year on the offside rear on my coupe. I disconnected the drive shaft from the diff and managed to push the shaft out of the hub with the a hydraulic puller. There was just enough room to get tools in to remove the hub and then bearing with the drive shaft in situ as there was not enough room to completely remove it. Probably not the correct way, but it worked for me. Be warned the drive shaft spline is very tight in the hub. Looks like BMW used some sort of engineering adhesive when they originally assembled. It needed the hydraulic puller and a lot of heat!

Good luck with yours, however you tackle it

TheDan · Post by **TheDan** » Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:21 pm

Thanks again for the useful information guys.

In that image Andy I take it you set the hydraulic puller up to push against the end of the drive shaft with the loose end (diff end) held against something inboard on the car?

I am not too worried about plan A failing as I can always crawl under the car and do plan B. I can also leave it on axle stands on my drive until new tools turn up if necessary (done this before when fighting with various difficult bits on the car lol!)

Liam22 · Post by **Liam22** » Mon Mar 27, 2023 3:46 pm

I changed a driveshaft for the first time last year.

Stage one:
1a: drift out the locking tab from the hub nut. Hammer and screwdriver job.
1b: refit road wheel without centre cap, put car back on the ground
1c: loosen hub nut with a big long breaker bar or a meaty impact wrench

With the car back in the air:
2. Remove pull rod (long diagonal that spans the fuel tank)
3. Remove exhaust (might not be required for OEM exhaust)
4. Disconnect driveshaft from output flange
5. Disconnect damper lower mount
6. Disconnect upper wishbone from upright
7. Remove rear anti roll bar

To remove the driveshaft from the hub it was enough to hit it with a club hammer. I was amazed how easy it was to get moving. Perhaps because my hubs get very hot. So if you struggle, then apply (blowtorch) heat direct to the driveshaft splined end.

AndyJ1 · Post by **AndyJ1** » Tue Mar 28, 2023 11:14 pm

TheDan wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:21 pm

In that image Andy I take it you set the hydraulic puller up to push against the end of the drive shaft with the loose end (diff end) held against something inboard on the car?

Yes, that’s exactly how I did it. Think I supported the diff end with a couple of cable ties.

TheDan · Post by **TheDan** » Sun Apr 02, 2023 8:25 pm

So, here is how it went today for those who are interested...

Firstly, I jacked the car up and took the wheels off but left the discs and calipers on. This was because I decided to remove the axle nuts a very lazy way (and completely ignore Liam22's advice - sorry!) by wedging a piece of wood against the brake pedal using the electric seat. This allowed me to remove the axle nuts using a large breaker bar without even drifting out the tabs, nice and easy.

The next bit was a bit more tricky. The 10 ton hydraulic puller that I borrowed was able to push the axle almost out of the hub (still attached at the diff end), but would not budge the hub! I had to resort to the more crude method of using a large bearing splitter and screwing some bolts (not wheel bolts) through the hub and against the bearing splitter. Sequentially doing these bolts up broke it loose in no time.

Because I didn't want to get under the car and left the drive shaft attached to the hub, I undid the upper arm bolt, lower arm bolt and damper bolt from the knuckle. This made it super easy to just pull the knuckle and move the drive shaft out of the way.

I then used a decent bearing puller kit to get the bearings out which was a piece of cake, except that I had to pop out to get a larger adjustable spanner (32mm) for the nut of the bearing puller. I also felt like I'd done a HIIT workout after getting them both out with the lack of a powerful enough impact wrench.

With all the bad stuff removed it was time to fit the new! Getting the bearings and hub installed was a piece of cake both being shiny, new metal surfaces. The next difficulty was getting the upper arm and lower arm reattached to the knuckle as it just didn't want to play ball with getting back into position. After some struggling, swearing and nearly giving up 5 times I managed to wrangle it all back into position and get the bolts done back up. The axle went into the hub reasonably smoothly with some persuasion with a hammer. Torqued up the new axle nut and all seems good.

I ran out of light unfortunately and on the passenger side still have to push the new bearing and hub in, reattach the arms and get the axle in the hub and done up. Shouldn't be too hard to finish this week.

This has been quite a tricky job that I wouldn't suggest DIYing unless you have plenty of time, tools and back pocket swear words. However, overall this job will have saved me ~£600 as I was quoted £800 for the rear hub and bearing replacement!!

raymond.harper · Post by **raymond.harper** » Sun Apr 02, 2023 8:32 pm

Well done! Have a good drink and an early night, you may feel a bit sore tomorrow.

TheDan · Post by **TheDan** » Wed Apr 05, 2023 4:49 pm

Finished re-assembling the rear at both sides yesterday and took it for a test drive. Glad to report none of the wheels fell off!

Just got the front hub/bearing assemblies to do, but these are much easier than the rears. Then I finally have to find new front wheels as mine are pretty badly buckled (or get mine straightened, but it's never been perfect when I've done this in the past).

Edit: I can confirm, this method of undoing the upper/lower control arms does work and means you don't have to get under the car if you are wary of doing so. However, be prepared to wrestle the knuckle/trailing arm back into position when doing them back up.

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