aluminum driveshaft install

2000 4.6 said:

Ok, my wife got me an aluminum driveshaft for x-mas. I am sure it is fairly easy to install but I wanted some directions before I started. Does anyone know where to find some written instructions on the install? Anyone done this before? How hard is it?

Click to expand...

jack the rear of the car up and put some stands under it. make sure the E-brake is set and if it's a stick, put it in 1st gear. get under the car with a 12mm 12-point wrench and a cheater/breaker bar and loosen as many bolts as you can get to(there are 4) on the rear of the d/s. you might have to find a nice long breaker bar because the bolts that connect the d/s to the rear-end flange are on there pretty good. you probably won't be able to get all 4 bolts at first. get the bottom 2 loose and then put the car back into neutral and spin the back wheels until you can get to the other 2 bolts, set the brake again and remove the last 2 bolts. slide the old d/s out and if the car is relatively level you shouldn't lose any tranny fluid out the tailshaft. "take note, there should be a yellow dot on the rear-end flange and on the new aluminum d/s, you must line this up for it to be balanced"....slide the new d/s in and make sure the yellow marks line up. put the bolts in with some thread locker and tighten them until they are "TIGHT"....you don't want them to get lose. now get the car down and go have fun!

any questions, just PM me or reply......

It's so easy it retarted. I put my car up on jacks first of all. Now I changed my exhaust at the same time so the exhaust wasn't on when I installed the driveshaft, so someone might want to chime in and say whether you can do this without removing the exhaust. Put on your park brake and keep the tranny in first. Remove the 4 bolts that attach the driveshaft to the differential. To get to all of the bolts you will have to rotate the driveshaft a couple of times. Just remove the park brake put it in neutral and then rotate. Then of course put the brake back on and the tranny back in first. I just used my leg to push the wrench. when you unbolt those, lower the rear portion of the driveshaft and just slide it out of the tranny. Put white lithium grease (at least thats what I used) on the silver tube (forgot what its called) that goes into the tranny and then slip it in. Don't force it in. Just be gentle and once the teeth line up it will slip in smoothly. Then just rebolt the driveshaft back on. Use blue threadlocker on those bolts to make sure they stay there. You probably want to let that sit for a day to make sure the threadlocker dries. But that pretty much it. Nice and simple! Did I miss anything anybody?

Crap! Premium Speed beat me. oh well. it just took so long to write.

wouldnt 4th or 5th hold better than 1st? i know its the totally opposite end but when i changed my harmonic balancer it was recommended to use the 5th gear. i would think it would be the same for a driveshaft, no?

GTPhreak said:

wouldnt 4th or 5th hold better than 1st? i know its the totally opposite end but when i changed my harmonic balancer it was recommended to use the 5th gear. i would think it would be the same for a driveshaft, no?

Click to expand...

it doesn't matter as long as the brake is set. 4th or 5th will hold better, but 1st is fine for this.


2000 4.6 - i left the dog bone thing on. i can't see how it would help by removing it.
there is nothing to grease, the new u-joints are sealed and last a long time.