psxer989

Need to replace my rear main seal. I've lowered the rear with transmission just past the cradle bolts. I've removed the 5 bolts on the torque tube where it connects to the bellhousing. However, I can't get more than a 1/4 inch of gap. I've played with the jack heights to make sure I'm not binding it. No luck.
This is on my a6 by the way. Maybe after 230,000 miles the spindle it just too frozen in there to break loose without a lift and extra hands?
Any tips I might be missing?

psxer989

Found the problem. Didn't loosen the clamp inside the bellhousing. Don't see that in the service manual. So, drivetrain is out. Tomorrow, after I replace the seal, will be reassembly which is going to suck. Lining up that torque tube spline is going to be tough.

Eritosthenes

While you have the torque tube out, this is the ideal time to pull the inner tube from its housing and inspect the black rubber elastomers fore and aft, the forward bearing, and the two aft bearings. My torque tube was almost certainly mis-installed at Bowling Green when the forward spline shaft failed to fully seat by 1/2". Lucky for me we were able to find all new bearings and elastomers on eBay at 135,000 miles. If all is OK, then just re-insert the tube in the housing and press on.

Cockroach

This may be a dumb question and I'm not trying to high jack this thread but what are the tell tail signs of a torque tube failing?

door2416

When mine was replaced it sounded like an exhaust rattle. Mine went at about 12k miles. Instead of changing just the bearings they changed the whole torque tube assembly.(at least that is what they told me)

Mordeth

Here is the sign mine gave:

psxer989

By the way, I finished my seal install. Did mine on the garage floor with a floor jack, transmission jack, a cheap scissor jack and 4 jack stands. Probably would be much much easier with an extra set of hands. For those of you who might want to tackle this alone, the hardest part was lining up and pushing the torque tube spindle back into place. To make life easier, I used a ratchet strap and hooked one end on my floor jack, which supported the rear cradle and the other end on the bellhousing window. I cranked the ratchet strap to apply tension and then raised and lowered the scissor jack under my engine and raise and lowered the tranny jack under the torque tube. Once the angle was right and I found the sweet spot, the constant tension pulled the spindle right into place.

449er

Mordeth, Yeah, I think that you may have had a problem there!