one or two piece drive shaft

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Radical Racing
Posts: 47
Joined: Mon Mar 11, 2013 12:06 am

one or two piece drive shaft

Post by Radical Racing »

The drive shaft's front U joint went out on my auto trans 1988 635 Csi. A company I am thinking about buying from is showing a two piece "dogleg" drive shaft for 1985 - 1989 cars. My car has a one piece drive shaft. Are they wrong? Has my car been modified or is just their catalog picture and tech guy wrong?

Does anyone know of a company in Northern California that can repair my drive shaft? The bearing cups are staked in place which I understand is a problem for most drive shaft repair places. I have no preference for staked or clipped in.

Could someone please provide the correct OEM part number?

Thanks in advance for help in clearing up this discrepancy.
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Brucey
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Location: Cambridge, UK

Re: one or two piece drive shaft

Post by Brucey »

I think your car should have a two-piece propshaft, with a splined joint in the rear section and a centre bearing in a rubber support; I have never seen anything else on an E24. You can find the correct pn by entering your chassis number on realoem or one of the other online ETKs, eg
http://2009.bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/ ... ive_shaft/

The propshaft pns vary depending on the transmission used, the diff used, and whether there is a guibo fitted, amongst other things. Since post 6/87 north American 635 autos don't vary I expect there to be one pn for your car.

I don't know why a two piece propshaft is specified, exactly; it might be to protect the back of the gearbox from lateral loads or something.

cheers
~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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nick88highline
Posts: 348
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Suffolk, UK

Re: one or two piece drive shaft

Post by nick88highline »

I ordered one from BMW about a year ago. The part number is 26111226625 and it's two pieces. My car is a 1988 635CSiA, so automatic as yours is. The manual cars have a completely different propshaft with a rubber guibo, something that is not required for an automatic.
Can't see how it can be a one piece propshaft, which I assume by that you mean it only has two UJs, one at the gearbox end and one at the differential end? If that's the case then it wouldn't have a centre bearing, would it?
Nick
BMW 635CSiA (1988)
BMW i3 (2016)
Jeep Grand Cherokee V8 (2000)
Morris Minor 1000 (1968)
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