Need some help with removing driveshaft
 

Im getting some bad squealing sounds when driving in reverse or letting off the throttle. I found a number of posts saying its most likely the driveshaft ujoints. Since they arent rebuildable I bought a used driveshaft from flyin miata which comes in monday.

I jacked up the car and noticed that part of the exhaust is going to have to come out to get access to it.

Can the underbody bracing that I pointed to in the picture be removed without getting anything out of alignment?

Anything else I need to be concerned with other than draining the tranny fluid and retorquing the new driveshaft to 22 ft lbs?

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2008-...9442/photo.jpg

Maybe, there is only one way to find out...

Pretty sure those braces have 0 to do with your alignment. My 92 didn't even have them that I can remember.

You can take the brace off no problem, and I'd you properly support the front wheels, you can jack the rear high enough to get away with not draining the transmission. You'll want the wheels up to rotate them in order to easily access the bolts anyways.

I have pulled/replaced 2 driveshafts without touching anything else on the car. A 1.8 and a 1.6, both for u-joints.

Remove 4 nuts/bolts

Separate driveshaft from differential (the annoyingly hard part, not so bad if you're replacing the driveshaft anyways, as you can beat the shit out of it)

Slide out old shaft

Slide in new shaft

Maneuvers around the braces easy enough

Dude, you don't need help for this.

I did it.

You can take that chassis bracing off no problem. Note that if you have the same brace I have on my 03, it will all come off as one piece. All or most of it. Undoing that will not fuck up your alignment!

I remember that space was tight when I was trying to slide the shaft out of the tranny. :| I just kept on yanking at it and eventually it came off. Not rocket surgery.

This is one of the easiest things to do.
Yank brace, yank midpipe, 4 bolts at shaft-to-diff connection and its out.

Takes me all of 20 minutes not working fast.

One suggestion: have a friend help you when removing the shaft/diff bolts. you have to spin the shaft and remove bolts 1 by 1. Its time consuming to get out, rotate wheels, pull ebrake, remove bolt, release ebrake, rotate wheels, etc.

Having a friend help you pull/release ebrake cuts the time by 90% lol

+1

Yes, you will save about 5 minutes. Tip of the week!

And he didn't even use any recip saw blades.

Thanks for all the help, the new driveshaft should be in today. I probably will have to take out the bracing anyway, the previous owner had a resonator welded in and I dont think the driveshaft will slide around it anymore.

I really hope this fixes the noise.

It doesn't take a degree in ME to figure out how to remove something like a driveshaft :giggle:

Rather then taking 15 minutes to stop your work, walk into the house, post a thread on the forum and wait for an answer, you could have taken 2 minutes to remove that brace and answer your own question.

Be nice.:)

Rather than wasting your time typing that up you could have just ignored this thread. Im a newbie to Miatas, so I will be posting easy questions from time to time.

+1

A Google search of "remove Miata driveshaft" came up with plenty of results that would have had helped you, all found in about 5 seconds. I'm guessing you searched to find out about the u-joint issue so just continue the search. I'm sure that your future easy questions could be answered in similar fashion. Saves everyone time.

I searched google to find:

-the driveshaft is probably what is causing my issue
-the whole driveshaft has to be replaced at once
-the driveshaft is torqued to 22 ft lbs

There wasnt a google search to tell me if I could remove the bracing without causing alignment issues. Im using google when I can so go easy on me.

As long as you don't touch the 4 cam bolts on the rear control arms all will be well.
Also if you have a 6 speed dont bother draining the tranny fluid unless it has never been changed. The fluid does not come up to the level of the drive shaft. I dont know about the 5 speed other then the shifter turret on a 5 speed needs to have fluid in it and the 6 speed does not.

I have a 6 speed and when I pulled the shaft out, the spice did not flow.

or you can use a screwdriver/metal rod/your weiner to prevent the driveshaft from spinning.