Well I seemed to have got burned on my recent purchase from a member of the forum. I am upgrading from my 10mm 97' torque tube to a 12mm model. I was toying with rebuilding my 10mm unit but came across a good deal on a 12mm unit. I was told it was unused, new. Had been sitting in this guys garage as a backup for his track car. In my conversations, he said he was unsure if it was new but had been told it was. I asked if he had opened it up to inspect the couplers and he said it had never been opened up. Well, I pulled the trigger and it showed up today. Right off the bat I knew I was screwed. No input shaft and I could hear something inside the tube. I unboxed it and the propshaft was hanging out. One of the rubber couplers was floating around in the tube with the 3 bolts that hold it to the propshaft. Also, one of the gold colored weights (I think) was also floating around. No bolt for it. The couplers???, no cracks but who knows if I can trust them.
So what am I missing here? Obviously the input shaft and bolts on that side. On the output (trans) side, what am I missing? Don't see any snap ring and isn't there another flange or something?
Here are some pics of what I'm dealing with. Any advice?

 

 

If I can find a correct input shaft for it, am I gonna need to have this thing rebalanced???
Should I just fight this guy for a refund and find another?? Or is this a simple fix, just rebuild it and move on???

 

Fight and get your money back . I hope u paid with paypal or your credit card. Contact Patches from the forum , he can probably help u with the shaft. He is doing some major modding on his car. Good luck.

 

That looks slightly bent I think. The black ring in the middle of the shaft shouldn't have rub marks on it.

 

Just get your money back. If the guy told you that it was "like new" then he committed fraud and shouldn't get away with it. It's quite possible that there was an issue with that torque tube and that's why it's in pieces.

The ring in the middle is to keep the shaft from bending too much when the shaft is over-revved. That can happen if you downshift into a lower gear at too high a speed even without releasing the clutch and over-revving the engine. At any rate, it touching the outside tube means it has been used hard best case or has a slight bend in the worst case.

The rear bearing carrier should just go into the tube on that step with the big snap ring behind it. I believe you're also missing a plastic bushing that goes over the pin on the end of the shaft to center it in the input shaft flange. And the shaft would likely have to be balanced again.

If you use Paypal then make sure the comments include a full description of what you're paying for including condition and the shipping method and prices for all. You could also put text along the lines of "by accepting this payment you agree to provide" before the description. Covers your *** and if you do run into a lying scum seller, he can't claim you got what you bought when he is lying and ripping you off.

 

This is a parts explosion for a 2000 (10mm).

 

The input shaft bearing is right around $100, the o-ring, slinger, snap ring are about $7 each...just to give you an idea on parts cost.

Those prices are from GM Partshouse and for the 10mm TT.

 

sorry to see this

when in doubt get pictures of absolutely everything and every part

buying, or selling car parts, for any car is risky

lot of deadbeats on both sides of the transaction. you have to be ultra careful

 

that is not even a 12mm torque tube, it is a 10mm. The 12mm had bolts and the 10mm had a big *** snap ring....that I had to get a huge Snap-On snap ring pliers to remove on mine lol....

 

Incorrect. 12mm has the snap ring.

 

I agree. When I had mine apart I've never seen a snap ring that big before.

 

I think the early tubes were all 10 mm and bolted. 97-98 maybe?
A4 tubes were all 10mm, my 2000 has a snap ring.

That's really sad what the seller did to you. No input shaft? Is he not a C5 owner?

Ron

 

The seller offered a refund f I shipped it back to him? I told him I'm not eating the shipping. He claims to have another from his 04' that he flipped with 43K miles. The reason he is selling off parts. Either way, he is gonna send me pics of that one to see if I would take that one. At this point, I just want a 12mm complete TT, even if it needs new bearings and couplers! Just need one to either swap in with my new clutch or rebuild before doing so. I'll be back!

 

But, what is the purpose of having that black ring if not to keep the shaft centered inside the tube when it flexes? Wouldn't it be normal that there would be some instances of contact since the shaft is riding on flexible rubber couplers on each end?

I'm not being a smart *** and know nothing about torque tubes. I'm just curious. I'm here to learn.

 

my 2000 has the snap ring, and I got a replacement snap ring for a 2000 from the GM Parts dept here. The 12mm did not come in the '00....

 

Off the subject. Just out of curiousity, how was this thing packaged and shipped?

I need to ship one.

 

The black ring is a bumper to prevent the shaft from whipping too far. Its ok to have a few marks on it, but a lot of marks probably means it's seen quite a bit of abuse. I've yet to take apart a tube and not have at least a few marks on the disk.

I didn't know we could get input shafts for $100 or so. Crazy, is that a new thing?

 

All he did was cover it with cardboard. It's not that heavy but needs a bit more than he did. The bell ends on the tube need more protection. They need to at least be doubled up on the cardboard as they were breaking through and exposed when it arrived.

 

Just got some pics of the other tube he has. Says it's out of an 04' Z06. He is going to remove the bellhousing and slave then send me another photo. Does it look like it's missing anything on the trans end? I'm switching from an early 10mm tube to a 12mm so I need to make sure I have everything I need.