Driveshaft Into Transmission

[charlotte240]

I have another post about rotating the engine trying to find TDC. Anyways, when I was rotating the engine, I did so by sticking a big screwdriver in the driveshaft U joint and putting the transmission in 5th gear and rotating it. The driveshaft was cut about 3 inches from the U joint by the way.

So, I pulled on the u joint, and the whole think just slid right out of the transmission and I was looking at a splined output shaft that was right about underneath the shifter lever.

Is this normal? It does kind of make sense though because the U joint appears to be pressed as opposed to bolted like I orginally thought so it would be kind of hard to remove the stupid thing if it didn't just slide out. Anyway, I'm just wanting to make sure that I don't have a dead transmission or anything (I'm paranoid).

[BuudWeizErr]

Umm... what?

Driveshafts don't just fall out of the transmission.

Was it even bolted to the diff?

[SWIFT_DRIFT]

Yeah...I don't get it either Buud. charlotte, you would normally rotate the engine by the huge nut holding the crankshaft pulley on. The driveshaft is cut? Also the U-joint should be bolted onto the underbody. How did the driveshaft just slide right out? Was it still bolted onto the differential in the back?

[charlotte240]

OH whoah! my bad.........I fogot to mention that the engine is in my garage, not in my car.

sorry:eek:

yeah, it's just that you get a little more leverage with the transmission in 5th gear so I was doing it by that instead of the crank pulley.

So, is the driveshaft normally held in only by the diff pushing it into the transmission? (when it's in the car of course )

[SWIFT_DRIFT]

Oh ok, that makes sense how you are doing things then since the engine/transmission are not bolted in the car. lol, I was kinda confused for a min there. Otherwise, yeah everything seems fine.

[RobDET]

it'll fall out when it's like that...

[BuudWeizErr]

It won't fall out. It is more like it will pull out with a little bit of force.

[Dr. Evil]

The drive axle / propellor shaft is designed to have play. As the car rocks up and down, as the transmission and engine shift within the tolerance of the bushings and mounts, or the rear differential experiances lateral/horizontal shift within tolerances. If the shaft was bolted directly to the transmission and rear differential, it would not last very long at all due to the strain acquired from the transmission and engine jolting around. The shaft would be weak link in the chain.

I discovered this the hardway while removing a transmission from a 90 240. I had a bump on my head the size of a potatoe with a spline indentation across my face (ok...exagerating, but it hurt when the shaft dropped on my head).