Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the driveshaft removal. First you remove the large heavy vibration dampener that surrounds the driveshaft where it connects the the transfer case (4) 13mm bolts. Then you use a prybar to pop the ends of the driveshaft off of the clips on the transfer case output shaft and the rear differential input shaft. Then you can remove the center of the crossmember that covers the middle of the driveshaft (4) 16mm bolts, then remove the carrier bearing. The bolts on the carrier bearing are M10 Triple square! The intent is then to slip the ends of the driveshaft fully off of the transfer case and the rear diff and pull it free from the car. Be sure to mark the Driveshaft and the input/output shafts so you can get them back on the same splines as before. The manual says to use 2 people to remove the driveshaft.
I had to use a lot of force to get the front of the driveshaft off of the transfer case end (2-1/2ft prybar yanking with all I had), the rear end was quite a bit easier. When popping off the front I accidentally forced it all the way off of the transfer case and the shaft dropped with the weight of the dampener! Hopefully there was no damage to the CV joint. There are lots of warnings in the manual about keeping the shaft straight and not bending it. Hopefully the joint is not very delicate!
Next up is disassembly of the driveshaft. It has 3 main parts and 2 slip yokes. Make sure you mark the orientation of the slip yokes and the ball cages before you take them apart! If this is put back together in a different orientation you will likely get vibrations. The ball cages orientation are probably not that important but the slip yokes certainly are.
I removed the clamps with a set of vice grip pliers. Taking them off was easier than putting the new ones on. They make special pliers for this but I made do with what I had.
I scribed the shafts to mark the orientation, then once I took the them apart, noticed that the QR codes engraved on each shaft lined up fairly well when assembled correctly. I wasn't able to see them until I had the boots off.
There are large snap rings that hold the ball cages in the shaft. They ride in the groove cut in the end of each end of the driveshaft and are a bear to remove. You can see above that the groove has small cutouts in it to allow the balls in the cages to slip past. I used the grooves to get an O-ring pick behind the clip and eventually got it to pop out. It wont go flying away because its gap is smaller than the shaft it fits over. The ball cage has to be pushed back to allow enough room to get the clip out. You can then pull the shaft all the way apart. I think you will need to take both slip yokes apart so that the center section will fit in a press to remove the carrier bearing.
Again I failed to take many pictures as this was all 2 hand work and messy!
The ball cages are held on with sheet metal caps that you drive off with a hammer and punch. The Kits I bought had all the parts needed except the clips and O-rings on the Transfer case output shaft and the Differential Input shaft.
I used a Press to remove the old carrier bearing, but I didn't have a properly sized pipe to press on the new one. I ended up just using a hammer and a punch to slowly tap it on the shaft, followed by the plastic "Centrifugal Disk" that was also in the kit. Note the orientation of the bearing when you press it on, it will only fit correctly one way.
Put on the boot with both clamps(Don't clamp them yet) and the snap ring before you put on the ball cage. I greased it up liberally with some wheel bearing grease then slid the rest of the slip yoke over it. The vice grips hold the ball cage in place against the end cap. Theses small ones did not hold so I had to use a normal size pair of vice grips. The slip yoke is very hard so you are unlikely to damage it but don't put them any tighter than is necessary.
The next challenge was installing the snap rings back in the tubes. The technique that finally worked was to set one end of the ring in its groove then using a flat head screwdriver in the adjacent ball groove, pry the ring back against the snap ring groove. This pulled a little more of the ring into the groove which I was barley able to hold with my other hand. I then put the screwdriver in the next ball groove and pried the ring in to its groove a little more and held with my other hand. I eventually worked around to the other end of the ring and it snapped fully into place. It was not easy especially with all the grease. My hands were not strong enough to bend the ring into place but I was able to hold it while I repositioned the screwdriver.
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Once the rings are in position, slide the boots over the ends of the shaft and tighten the clamps. I used both of my pairs of vice grips to get the clamps tight and locked together. This was also a challenge because these clamps are not designed to be closed with Vice grips and they kept slipping off of the ears.
The reinstall only had a few issues. I did not get the O-rings and the snap rings that hold the ends of the driveshaft to the T-case and the rear Diff, so I decided to reuse the original ones. I inspected the clips and they were still springy and did not have any damage from removal. the O-rings were still squishy and not hardened. This still makes me a little nervous since TommiT above had mentioned them coming apart after service.
The front shaft went on without much drama. I used a Dead blow hammer on the dampener ring and it snapped right into place. I tested it with the prybar and it was on solidly.
The rear of the shaft was a different story. It has a suspension crossmember right below it and it is really in the way. I tried a 2x4 block of wood but it would barley fit. I found a large piece of aluminum that was cut out of a pipe so it was curved. It fit on the back of the coupler fairly well. I finally managed with a lot of hammering at different angles to get the coupler mated most of the way. It came off too easily with the pry bar so I pulled it back and greased up the shaft and O-ring. After a bit more hammering it passed the prybar test. I'm reasonably confident that it will stay on. I think the coupler was at a slight angle to the Input shaft on the Differential, but I was unable to see it because of the crossmember. I think hitting it on the top of the coupler was the best spot to get it to tilt properly and slide on.
This morning I had a check engine light, but it turns out I forgot to plug the Particulate sensor back in! It made all the way back from the shop without complaint, then set off the light at startup this morning. I cleared the code with VCDS and all is good now.
It was nice having a lift to do this on!
If you have any questions, please ask. I'm sure I forgot something.
Todd
volkswagen.7zap.com
