Driveshaft madness

[JSVice]

I was going to replace the giubo on my '97 Z3 today. I got it up in the air, dropped the exhaust, and then noticed some strange things. For one, the front part of the drive shaft doesn't mate completely with the rear part. There is quite a bit of exposed splines from the rear driveshaft when the front one is connected and you can see a brass colored ring which I'm assuming shouldn't just be loose like that. Also, the bracket for the carrier bearing had been altered and made to fit with washers. The bracket wasn't wide enough to go over the studs coming down from the top. Someone has really done a hatchet job on it.

My questions are, first, is it normal for there to be such a great length of splines showing? And second, what is going on with that carrier bearing bracket? I'm wondering if the driveshaft is the wrong part number.

 

[JSVice]

So from what I'm reading... the exposed splines are no big deal. That's by design, evidently.

 

[Patryk]

Mine 97' looked the same when I took it out. Check parts number with realoem, as far as I'm concerned there's at least two types of driveshaft in z3.

 

[t-tony]

I was going to replace the giubo on my '97 Z3 today. I got it up in the air, dropped the exhaust, and then noticed some strange things. For one, the front part of the drive shaft doesn't mate completely with the rear part. There is quite a bit of exposed splines from the rear driveshaft when the front one is connected and you can see a brass colored ring which I'm assuming shouldn't just be loose like that. Also, the bracket for the carrier bearing had been altered and made to fit with washers. The bracket wasn't wide enough to go over the studs coming down from the top. Someone has really done a hatchet job on it.

My questions are, first, is it normal for there to be such a great length of splines showing? And second, what is going on with that carrier bearing bracket? I'm wondering if the driveshaft is the wrong part number.

Best guess is that he car has had a 2nd hand prop shaft fitted at some point. The centre bearing support is obviously not the correct one for your car or it would fit on both studs. Ask one of our resident breakers if they have a full prop shaft to sell, not just the rear half.

Tony.

ps. If you enlarge the picture of the bearing support, around the exposed stud you can see the outline of the slotted hole of the original bearing carrier.