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I hear that often but is that for certain years with auto? I just removed mine on my 87 4+3 with plenty of room. As far as I can tell it wasn't ground on.
Interesting...
Yeah, I'd also like to see some pictures of that pinch weld area of the driveshaft on your car. Would be interesting. And I've heard of others who've said that they were able to remove their driveshaft without having to pull the crossmember beam and not having to modify anything on the car.
Yeah, I'd also like to see some pictures of that pinch weld area of the driveshaft on your car. Would be interesting. And I've heard of others who've said that they were able to remove their driveshaft without having to pull the crossmember beam and not having to modify anything on the car.
The local shop's labor book cost for doing the driveshaft ujoints on a C4 is around $400 and for 3rd Gen Camaro is around $130. Which on the Camaro you can just pop the driveshaft out directly.
I asked them to give me a labor quote to do it the shortcut way. As it's pretty much like the Camaro once the exhaust is off in 10 minutes and that pinch weld is grounded down in 10 minutes. Their tech that is working on the car came up with $340. I just don't get where they come up with $200 extra just to spend 10 or so minutes pulling the exhaust and 10 or so minutes grinding a pinch weld.
I'll see about having some other shops check it out to give me a quote. I had figured they'd come up with around $200.
Edit: I ended up calling a couple of other shops for quotes on ujoint replacement labor on the driveshaft. Now I don't know if their system is calling for the crossmember to be removed or not as they weren't able to say. But one shop told me it would be $266, and another shop told me $225. The $266 shop said they would only go by the book and wouldn't cut on the car so the driveshaft can be taken out quicker. So I'll just bring it to that $225 shop and bring pictures of that pinch weld and ask them to grind that pinch weld down and not remove the crossmember. So hopefully they'll do that as so also I don't have to worry about those crossmember bolts coming lose or something later as I've read happening to others here. I doubt any of them have removed a C4 crossmember beam is my guess since there are only a couple of other C4's in the area that I've ever seen.
There is no need to grind or cut anything. Just bend the pinch weld out of the way, only as much as required to sneak the shaft out without disturbing the C-beam. It's bone-simple to do. When you're done, either bend the weld back or don't bother. Mine was bent while the car was owned by a previous owner, and it remains that way today. Makes the shaft easy to R&R at any time in the future, and nobody's going to see it unless I roll the car onto its roof, which I intend to avoid doing.
If you're cost-conscious about this repair, consider doing the driveshaft R&R yourself, and let somebody replace the u-joints as a bench job for you.
There is no need to grind or cut anything. Just bend the pinch weld out of the way, only as much as required to sneak the shaft out without disturbing the C-beam. It's bone-simple to do. When you're done, either bend the weld back or don't bother. Mine was bent while the car was owned by a previous owner, and it remains that way today. Makes the shaft easy to R&R at any time in the future, and nobody's going to see it unless I roll the car onto its roof, which I intend to avoid doing.
If you're cost-conscious about this repair, consider doing the driveshaft R&R yourself, and let somebody replace the u-joints as a bench job for you.
Live well,
SJW
Thanks. Do you by any chance already have pictures of that area you could post of that pinch weld being bent? I was going to print that out and bring it to the shop or if I'm able to see where you've bent it, or I might could bend it the same way before taking it to the shop. Kind of hard to know where to bend it without being able to see where the driveshaft is hitting.
I'm going to take it to that $225 place and also have them replace that output shaft seal too as they said they'd replace it free anyways. I don't think I'll have them mess with replacing the bushing as I think that $225 price that they gave me to pull driveshaft and replace ujoints is not including the time to pull that crossmember on their computer, which would make doing that bushing a lot more expensive.
I've got the Dana Spicer "5-3613X" ujoints which are non-greasable and coated for aluminum, also new Dana Spicer "2-70-18X" strap kit/bolts, and an aftermarket style Autozone Duralast output shaft seal.
Thanks. Do you by any chance already have pictures of that area you could post of that pinch weld being bent? I was going to print that out and bring it to the shop or if I'm able to see where you've bent it, or I might could bend it the same way before taking it to the shop. Kind of hard to know where to bend it without being able to see where the driveshaft is hitting.
I'm going to take it to that $225 place and also have them replace that output shaft seal too as they said they'd replace it free anyways. I don't think I'll have them mess with replacing the bushing as I think that $225 price that they gave me to pull driveshaft and replace ujoints is not including the time to pull that crossmember on their computer, which would make doing that bushing a lot more expensive.
I've got the Dana Spicer "5-3613X" ujoints which are non-greasable and coated for aluminum, also new Dana Spicer "2-70-18X" strap kit/bolts, and an aftermarket style Autozone Duralast output shaft seal.
Here's a photo. The bent section is right behind the E-brake cable coupler. This also reminds me that I did not have to move the E-brake cable to get the D/S out.
When they try to remove the driveshaft, it'll become quite obvious where it makes contact. That'll be the place that they'll need to bend the pinch weld. No need to overthink this.
Here's a photo. The bent section is right behind the E-brake cable coupler. This also reminds me that I did not have to move the E-brake cable to get the D/S out.
When they try to remove the driveshaft, it'll become quite obvious where it makes contact. That'll be the place that they'll need to bend the pinch weld. No need to overthink this.
Live well,
SJW
Thanks. I really appreciate the photo. I'll print it out and bring it with me to the shop next week along with the other photo of that weld getting grinded down and let them pick what to do. I see what you are saying on not overthinking it. Which I'm not. The issue is I have to deal with shops who talk skeptically of having to modify the car in order to remove the driveshaft. So bringing visual aids of photos of it should be easier to convince them.
I'll bring some white out or something to make sure they have something to mark a line on the driveshaft to the yoke and on the driveshaft to the rear spindle so they'll put the driveshaft back in the exact spot to try and maintain as much of the factory balancing as possible. I'll also bring some "fine" emery cloth so they can clean the yoke to remove any grooves from the old seal and polish the metal to make it smoother to help keep it from ripping the new seal.
On these type of critical things, like the ujoint strap bolts, when I have shops do them is I print out a list of the bolt torque specs. Just to try and get them to put a torque wrench on these bolts and torque them to spec instead of guessing. As I generally never see techs using torque wrenches on anything.
On these type of critical things, like the ujoint strap bolts, when I have shops do them is I print out a list of the bolt torque specs. Just to try and get them to put a torque wrench on these bolts and torque them to spec instead of guessing. As I generally never see techs using torque wrenches on anything.
A shop using a torque wrench on U joint straps. That's a good one!
