Drive shaft too SHORT?

[Machine]

(i know it's really not)

Ok i have a problem...i hooked the front part of the drive shaft to the SR transmission and the rear to the rear end, then connected them at the middle, which makes sense...

BUT, when i went to connect the 2 there was a 1/4 inch (VERY little, 4 or 5mm...whatever that translates to) gap between the 2 shafts, i assumed the front piece was shoved into the splines on the transmission too far so this is what i did. I lined up the 2 shafts and put the screws in, then cross-bolted them together slowly, i didnt meet any real resistance, they came right together..

fast forward to today, i look under my car and theres a puddle of gear oil under the car.

Now, that brings me to the second issue, i put too much gear oil in (3+ liters) and i was told the excess would just leak out on its own wherever. Is that what's happening at the dust collar? (the location where its leaking)

This wouldnt be a concern if my gears didnt make noise..

When the car is winding down from about 2000-2500 rpms 3rd and 4th (and sometimes 2nd) make a grindy kind of sound..on top of that the transmission feels like of notchy. So i dunno, help!

[robbbby]

Why did you unhook the middle of your driveshaft? If I recall, it specifically says in the FSM not to. The whole thing would of just slid out from the front then you can unbolt it from the rear end.

And 3 litres of transmission fluid sounds a bit to much, you're not supposed to overfill it. Not sure on the proper amount though.

[SWIFT_DRIFT]

You are supposed to put the driveshaft on in one piece. Slide the front spline into the transmission, connect the carrier bearing to the underbody, then line up the rear of the driveshaft to the differential. To fill up your transmission properly you pump oil into the fill plug until it starts to comeback out. The fill line is the bottom of the fill plug basically. So once some oil starts coming back out of the transmission you know it's properly full. Not that hard. Not sure why you unassembled the drive shaft, not too smart. Either your dust collar is broken or the front spline is not far enough in now and your gear oil is leaking out of the dust collar.

[VitaminT]

I think mine is leaking from the same spot, but I know I over filled my transmission by a long shot. For some stupid reason I thought it held almost a gallon, pour happy I went. I think it holds something like 2.65 quarts. I am going to pull the side(fill) plug soon and let the excess spill out.

[Cyberkreig]

My transmission does the same thing..(the noise when whinding down)

the leaking is probably due to the over fill.. and when my car was on the lift, i could see that the driveshaft looks about 1/2" too short... whatever.. it runs.

[RobDET]

If you install the KA dust collar the driveshaft doesn't "look" too short anymire.

Also be very sure that the boot that goes on the transmission at the shifter is not torn... Mine was.

I overfilled mine and it shifted hard but evenutially got mutch easier as the fluid came out (not sure where it went).

It used to smell like gear oil all the time but it doesn't anymore.

[charlotte240]

Sorry, I know this is a stupid question but since we're on topic, it won't hurt. What is the dust collar? Is that the plastic/metal thing that goes around the output shaft where the output shaft meets the transmission? If that's it, then how in the world do you remove it? I'm not near it or anything so I'm going by memory, but I don't recall any screws/bolts holding it on.

Also, I was under the impression that you don't have to remove the driveshaft at all when doing the SR swap. Of course it slides out of the transmission, but is there any need for unbolting it either at the center section or the diff?

[VitaminT]

I just took a hammer to the collar. The SR one is much harder to get out, but it is not too bad. On the drive shaft. I was stupid and did not think to slide it in as the motor went in so I had to take the center section off to get the yoke in the transmission.

[charlotte240]

so the collar is that plastic/rubber coated metal thing that goes around the end of the driveshaft? I know it sounds stupid, but it would be even more stupid to take a hammer to the wrong part. Also, which direction did you hit it? is it supposed to just slide out (with a hammers assistance) the same way and direction the driveshaft does?

P.S. VitaminT, you da man. You help and don't flame. That's a rare thing here.

[VitaminT]

You are correct on the collar. It just goes in a groove machined in the end of the transmission. Goes in and out just like the driveshaft yoke. The SR one is much smaller and is more of a lip than a collar. The only reason the collar has to be swapped is due to differences in the driveshaft yoke (or that is all I can tell).

I just finished swapping the diff in my S13. I kind of wish I had used the SR collar and driveshaft now that I have unbolted and rebolted both the center bearing and rear flange. Oh well, hindsight always makes the past sound stupid.

[RobDET]

I can't speak for anyone else but there would have been NO WAY to get the driveshaft to slide in as i dropped the motor. I had to have the motor at such an angle that the shaft would have just made a difficult process even that mutch harder...

As far as the dust cover it is pressed on. Getting the KA one off and the SR one off isn't nearly as hard (i didn't think) as getting the damn KA one into the SR transmission once the motor was in... This is definately something you want to do when your transmission is sitting beside the car and not in it.

[VitaminT]

I agree. The collars did not take 10 minutes with it out.

I ended up taking the yoke off my driveshaft because even with the carrier bearing on the ground the angle was still too steap to insert the yoke. I had to take the 3 bolts out of the yoke. Slide it in and then bolt it back up. Kind of lame, but I guess it worked.

[RobDET]

Yah... i just unbolted it from the Diff sence i've had it off back there recently to install the LSD.

I ate dirt to get the center hanger undone though! It was nasty with undercoat!

[VitaminT]

I kind of think my brother got the shaft having to install the drive shaft while the motor was already in. HAHA. He also had to put the bolts in the lower transmission mount.

Unfortunately I had to swap the LSD by myself and it was a handfull at times. It kept falling off the jack, but it all good now.

[RobDET]

I did the LSD alone and i had to install the shaft in the car as well. I jsut pulled the WHOLE thing out before the swap and put it back when i was finished... it wasn't too bad.

[Machine]

question:

what is a carrier bearing and what does it look like?