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Driveshaft replacement

T

timtourer

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Messages
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Location
Swindon
Car
Accord Tourer i-CTDi
Hi All. I have the vibration under acceleration described in lots of posts here and have decided to bite the bullet mans change the drive shafts. Has anyone got any experience of doing this job?
 
it's not hard to DIY, will need to remove hub nut, lower ball joint... You can then remove the shaft. You will need a balljoint remover or may get away with beating the lower attached arm with a heavy hammer.
 
will come out with some persuasion, you can gently pry on the edge but be careful not to damage the gearbox seal.
 
The shafts have a retaining ring (circlip?) so just need to line up the splines and give it a good push , you'll know when you get it home.

you may need to undo the lower arm as well to get the shaft out can't remember exactly.
 
Thanks so much; great to hear it's not too bad a job. I'll take a few pictures and write a how-to (***uming it goes ok!). Thanks again.
 
Make sure you have something to catch the transmission fluid and renew with fresh MTF3
 
Will do- I changed the gearbox oil about 5000 miles ago (in the hope that it would have an effect on the transmission clunk) so I was planning on draining the gearbox and reusing the MTF after putting it through a 5 micron filter; what are your thoughts?
 
We lost some on the euroR recently but I think it was overfilled anyway..
 
You definitely sure its the drive shafts?

Before you undertake the drive shaft replacement would best to confirm it isn't your wheels being bucked or unbalanced.
Wheel Tracking? steering rack play? Track rods ends? Front bearings?
I had a slight vibration at 65mph and slight vibration under hard acceleration when i first got my accord but it turned out to be a slightly buckled alloy wheel - now repaired.
I almost did the same and went to get the driveshafts replaced but many members advised me to check everything else before spending money on the driveshafts
 
I must admit that it has crossed my mind that it's not the drive shafts, but I've changed both upper and lower front wishbones, arb bushes and drop links, I've also swapped the front and rear wheels and had new tyres fitted and balanced. There's a definite clunk when you go from engine braking to accelerating and the vibration under acceleration at about 60 which goes when you come off the power.

With all that I'm pretty convinced; I guess the only definitive way of telling is to swap them out. I'm booked onto a ramp tomorrow so all going well, I'll know tomorrow evening. Fingers crossed!!
 
I think you have pretty much nailed it with the process of elimination.
I agree, it does sound like the drive shafts.
Did you got for genuine or third party in the end? i.e. blueprint or similar?

Good luck for tomorrow - hope the new drive shafts sorts the problem, I can imagine the vibration is very annoying.
The vibrations I experienced drove me insane
 
I got blueprint shafts from an eBay seller- £240 delivered. They look fine and came with hub nuts (£11 I needn't have spent at the Honda garage!)
 
So, slightly emotional first session! I attacked the passenger side first and got as far as undoing the hub nut before things got complicated! Had to resort to the angle grinder to slice through the hub nut and the end of the shaft to remove the nut. Once that was done, the lower ball joint was solid, so resorted to removing the lower wishbone. That won me enough space to remove the shaft from the knuckle. Getting the shaft out of the gearbox was also a bit of a mission; I ended up cutting the inner boot, removing the shaft from the inner cup, then rotating the cup whilst tweaking it away from the gearbox with a pry bar. After a couple of rotations with a pry every 30 degrees or so it popped out nicely (that was after my attempt to extract it using rope around the inside of the shaft and a length of scaffold pole as a lever!). Getting the new shaft in was ok; I popped the car in gear, and rotated the shaft whilst pushing gently until it started engaging on the splines. I tapped the shaft home (it was pretty clear from the sound of the tap when it was fully home) then wrestled the knuckle out and onto the outer end of the shaft. It went back together with the usual suspension wrestle, but nothing too serious.

I left the driver's side for another day but on the test drive, the vibration under acceleration was gone!!!

In summary- bit of a pig of a job, but worth it. Hopefully when I do the other side, the clunk will disappear completely (fingers crossed)!!!
 
What a story! Glad it's a happy ending though
 
sounds like it was stuck in good and proper...glad you sorted the vibration. The clunk you describe if the same is normally the steering column I found but could be the driveshaft? Please let us know if replacing the other side cures it.
 
Well, I found the time to replace the driver's side this afternoon. Not half as emotional as the passengers side! I cracked the hub nut using a 3/4" drive socket and a 4' breaker bar! After that it was pretty straight forward- remove strut fork and the anti-roll bar link, undo the lower ball joint (lots of tension on the ball joint splitter and a good belt to the lower wishbone) then knock the drive shaft out of the bearing whilst pulling the knuckle outboard (hinging on the top ball joint). Having freed the outboard end, I managed to get a large screwdriver through the lower engine mount and onto the inner end of the drive shaft. Again, I tapped the inner edge outward, rotated, and tapped again; a few rotations and it popped out nicely. The replacement shaft went back in pretty easily and everything went back together smoothly.

The only downside is that the clunk is still there!!
 
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