Porch

I'm trying to source a rear driveshaft for my manual e61, but all the driveshafts out there say "for automatic transmission"- why would there be any difference between driveshafts for autos vs manuals? The transfer case is the same, is the rear diff different or something?

kd7iwp

When I needed a new driveshaft for my E30 I ordered from this place in Portland and it worked great. Even came with grease fittings installed and a new center support bearing. I don’t see why they wouldn’t have what you need.

https://www.driveshafts.com

My best guess for the difference is the transmission is likely a different length.

Porch

Fortunately, both driveshafts look fine, the only thing needing replacement is the guibo, and the rear output shaft seal on the transfer case. And the servo motor of the transfer case(couldn't calibrate it with the scan tool). And maybe the transfer case, but going to put a new servo on first, with a new output shaft seal, and see how that goes. I suspect that when I topped off the transfer case oil recently, the fresh shower of oil on the servo motor caused it to malfunction, since the car started acting up the same day... Then later, a new guibo and the upgraded center bearing carrier from jxb performance to reduce the wear on all of this stuff. Then new shifter bushings, shocks and struts, air springs, valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket, cv axles, brake lines, driver's seat, various suspension bushings, steering stuff, oil chfrdhggjgcfkhgrdcbfdfbhhjggcddff g bhujhhgtffzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........................

Porch

Replaced guibo, which was pretty haggard- soft, I believe, from me overfilling the transfer case with the stupid, messy, through--the-drain-hole method and gear oil showering the guibo(and my shifter bushings) through the vent tube on the transfer case. There was actually no sign of rear output shaft seal failure, which a shop had quoted me $1700 to replace all by itself. The tool that allowed me to access the fill plug was a super long 14mm ratcheting wrench with a cut piece of a 14mm allen wrench stuck in it from my buddy the super mechanic, and I believe that you could access the fill plug just by lowering, not removing, the exhaust, and moving the long heat shield that protects the rear driveshaft towards the back of the car. No need to remove the servo motor, no stupid mess and no chance of overfilling like I did.

I heard a lot of people on the internet, including the bmw repair guide, say that there's no danger of overfilling your transfer case using the drain hole fill method. I'm here to tell you that is totally wrong. Guibos and servo motors don't like being bathed in oil.

kd7iwp

I also did not remove my exhaust, just lowered it and had no problems removing fill and drain plugs of the transfer case. Now if only I could bleed the clutch slave cylinder without removing the front drive shaft…

deadrabbits

it's the length, the automatic transmission is physically longer than the manual, so the auto drive shaft is shorter. Also in case you didn't know, e60's and e61's use the same drive shafts.

Porch

At least the front driveshaft looks fairly easy to remove, and much cheaper to replace than the rear...

Porch

So after replacing the guibo and servo motor, the new servo failed the calibration test on the scan tool, so replaced old servo, filled transfer case the right way through the fill port, put the car back together, drove around for a while and... same problem. So I babied the car back to my buddy's shop, jacked it up, unplugged the transfer case, and at least so far, it drives fine. So assuming that continues, the problem is the transfer case, servo motor, or anything forward of that. I'm not sure if either servo motor is the problem- running the calibration test with the motors outside of the transfer case made both of them spin, so my best guess atm is transfer case. In the meantime, and hopefully I'm not jinxing it, but car drives fine in RWD, so I can save up and/or hit the lottery so I can afford to fix this and every other part on this f***ing thing...