Tail Shaft Centre Bearing Replacement

[eXc]

Topic: Tail Shaft Centre Bearing Replacement

Car: R32 GTST (Should be very similar with other cars)

Difficulty: 5/10

Time Required: Took me about 3 hours

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Overview

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The centre bearing in the tail shaft wears out. Mine was absoultley stuffed. The rubber mounted bearing was hardly attached to the rubber! Changing the bearing took away a lot of noises that I just thought was normal.

A local shop would do this for me (not including parts) for 1 hours labour ($70ish) so if your time is worth that...then just pay someone, it's an 'easy' job, but takes time when you don't have the luxary of a hoist and tools.

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Tools Needed

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A good socket set so you don't round any heads. You will need a large socket. It was a 30mm from memory... A shifter will NOT work.

A good spanner set so you don't round any heads. I think from memory you need 8, 10, 12, 14 and 17.

A sharp knife that is solid (Stanley knife...not some plastic thing, you need to put weight onto it)

Floor Jack/Car Stands/Ramps

Bench Vice unless you want to make it very hard for you.

Don't know the name, but a puller - It's like a clamp. See Pictures.

A correct sized pump or seal driver to put the bearing back in.

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Parts Needed

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New Centre Bearing - Go to a custom tailshaft shop. Mine cost me $110. The numbers on the box are..

Drive Pro

CB56

DJCB

26. 5860

Lock Tight or equivilent.

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Installation

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Perform this in a clean, shaded area. Don't do it in the sun as the tank will pressurise and start pushing fuel out even without a pump! (It happened to me after I went back and checked the pump was still mounted correctly)

1) Jack the car up or use car ramps on the rear. Stabilize the car (so use car stands. DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER USING ONLY A JACK) Personally, I have back ups aswell. I had the car on car stands...plus the ramps under the rear wheels (I wanted it about 1 foot higher than the ramps, so just the ramps weren't good enough.

2) Hand brake on - Unbolt the tail shaft bolts at the diff end, and anywhere else along the line (memory blank...I did this a few weeks ago)

3) Take the hand brake off, rotate the wheels (thus moving the tail shaft) so you can get to the other bolts. Put the handbrake back on and remove those bolts.

4) Remove the support near the gearbox

5) Remove the centre bearing mount.

6) Pull the shaft out.

7) Take the shaft apart near the centre bearing, exposing a nut.

8) Put it in a vice and bend out the locking mechanism and undo the nut (needs a lot of love..I used a 4 foot pipe and it was still hard)

9) Get the stanley knife and cut the rubber so the mount comes off. Then cut the rubber so that you can expose a metal section of the bearing to get the puller on.

10) Put the puller on and tighten it to remove the old bearing.

11) Put the new bearing on, using something to drive it on (you can buy seal drivers...but they are expensive...I just used the correct sized PVC pipe as I always do for bearings)

12) Don't foget the copper washer, then put the lock nut back on and bend the locking mechanism in.

13) Re-assemble in reverse using locktight

14) Go back and check the bolts under the car in a few weeks time

[simpletool]

FWIW was a 27mm nut on my R33 GTST.

[Ryno]

Yep it's a 27mm on the R32 also... I just did this myself in around 2 hours. It's not too hard, though a bench vice is vital to hold the drive shaft while you get the 27mm nut off. I also found it easier to use an angle grinder to cut the rubber back and reveal the metal for the puller feet to grip on.

[hardsteppa]

yes..I found this pretty straightforward too, the only thing I will say is the thread for the nut has a groove cut into it, that you deform the lip of the new nut, once tightened, to sit into and not come undone, and this thread can become deformed quite easily (don't ask me how I know...) so only use a puller, don't love-tap the end of the shaft or anything trying to get it loose from the old bearing, as the thread may easily deform and then you're in for a world of sh&t lol..

[BensDR30]

A couple of additional points to note;

• Even with an LSD, you'll only need to jack up one wheel to rotate the tailshaft - use some muscles and you'll overcome the clutch packs in the diff
• Don't forget to mark all flanges as to not throw out any factory balancing
• On the C34 at least, the front flange (the bit held on by the 27mm nut) has a locating dimple in it that aligns with the locking groove on the shaft
• Use a pin punch to free up the locking tab on the nut
• The 27mm nut comes undone really easily with an impact gun