As per title, left hand side driveshaft has popped out from the gearbox flange, it happened 2nd time only on full lock when I hit a pothole ! I suspect driveshaft is too short ! Car is a mk 2 with a tdi engine/5 speed gearbox conversion…is there a slightly longer gearbox that will fit ? Failing that I may chop the driveshaft off and weld a piece In between if I cannot get a 20mm longer shaft !
There's a good post on Nige's Pinderwagen for checking the sizing of driveshafts. http://pinderwagen.com/build-topics/gearbox-and-clutch/custom-driveshafts/
Something is short ,had this happen on my mk 2 gti but the car was jacked high with strut and ARB disconnected,turned out to be a bad " C " clip on the output flange. Under normal driving you won't pop a shaft even @ full lock,did you check for back and forwards movement after you fitted the shaft ?,cheers
and a list of stock shaft sizes: https://clubgti.com/forums/index.ph...engths-bare-driveshaft-lengths-wanted.155374/ are you running mk2 or mk3 wishbones?
I don’t know, car was converted by previous owner, I believe it might still be mk2 wishbones as it’s not as wide as the other mk2 I have but I might be wrong and be just an optical illusion as this one has plastic arch trims ! I bought a 2nd hand driveshaft from a mk3 tdi, will check lengths on shafts as soon as I get it ! The shaft had no circlip at the gearbox end, I make a groove with a grinder and fitted one when it popped out last time ! Probably wasn’t seated well enough…what is funny is I had no issues driving the car about 2000 km and all of a sudden it done that twice in a week in a similar scenario: full lock to the left and hitting a bump at the same time ! Thanks for suggestions folks !
Yeah first step is figure out what wishbones and get the right shaft to suit. If it had no circlip then that's the main issue and I'm not sure where it could have come from since MK2/3 all use them... A mk3 shaft would be too long as said assuming MK2 wishbones even if the donor is 4 stud as they're all widetrack
I bought a mk3 diesel driveshaft, will check lengths tomorrow when I take the one off the car ! This golf has different ARB setup to the white one which has been converted to mk3 drivetrain !
Mk3 is wider than mk2, I've just converted my mk2 to mk3 tdi wishbones, rack and driveshaft to keep it 4 stud, the gti, 16v and vr6 mk3 are 5 stud and widetrack. Mk3 track rod from rack on left, mk2 on right. Whole set up is wider.
Its definitely has a mixture of mk2 and mk3 parts as when I ordered parts I have had to give a mk3 chassis ! Steering rack is definitely a mk3. However the white one is different setup, I will take pictures of the track rod ends and antiroll bar…
4stud mk3 is different to 5 stud mk3. 4 stud is basically MK2 but wider, has same roll bar, ball joints and wheel bearing housings as MK2. just wishbones, shafts and track rods are longer. 5 stud has different wishbones, roll bar, ball joints and bearing carriers. The castor angle is changed as they offset the ball joint position on wishbone, the ball joint attachment on wheel bearing housing is offset as well to put wheel back central in the arch. Roll bar mounts differently so won't swap between 4 and 5 stud. The brake disc is also lower offset, hub has different sized spline
It's a 4 stud bearing carrier, the 256/280 ones have holes for abs sensors. Probably from a mk3 donor though since MK2 rarely have abs
Little update, found the gearbox drive flange broken in 2 pieces, I did weld it for the time being. Will get another flange from breakers. I put the driveshaft I got from the breakers although the one of the car was fine ?! The old driveshaft is thicker than the “new” one…the car was a gti previously and been converted to diesel in 2005…
Got a flange from breakers and a new bolt, swapped it and all is ok for time being. The driveshaft is rubbing onto the flange as suspension travels up and down, will get the old one machined to clean the weld on the seal’s face then fit it back as I trust my welds more than the stock part… Also have a slow parasitic drain on the battery which never done before, last evening while coming from park with my toddler I noticed brake lights staying on- no wonder it drained the battery empty ! I will see if I can repair the brake light switch if not I might have to buy a new one ! Car is driving well otherwise…
Did you measure the shaft? If it's hitting the flange its too long Push the brake pedal, grab brake light switch plunger and tug it fully out, release pedal
I did not measure the driveshaft, will measure the old one tomorrow…thanks for the tip with the brake light switch, will adjust it at work tomorrow !
Worked for a few days, now its back to misbehaving...will get a new one from car parts. It's annoying as its cutting fueling when setting off and sometimes I have to blip throttle so it comes out of limp mode...
