1997 E36 M3 Rear U Joint Replacement

[dprachar]

We all know know that dreaded vibration you get under your rear seats in you high mileage e36 when the rear u joint starts to wear out. One of my friends recnetly bought a 1997 M3 with about 200,00 on the ticker that was presenting some issues with the rear u joint. Having replace the rear u joint in my 1998 328I a year and a half ago (35,000 on the joint and running smooth as ever) I decided to post the process and tools used this time around to help fill a void of information on how to fix this problem other than buy a new drive shaft. So I will go over everything I did to replace the u joint with some photo documentation.

I am not going to go over how to remove the drive shaft. I am sure that is documented in more than a few places.

I started off the whole proccess by getting a replacement u joint from a drive train specialty shop in Texas. The measurements of the u joint are 2.470 outside to outside and .945 cap diameter.
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Next we pulled the drive shaft apart after making sure to mark each piece for the correct alignment. Then we worked on removing the original u joint.

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With the original u joint spider out we pounded out the old caps, ground down the stakes that were holding in the caps, and zeroed up the drive shaft in the mill.

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After zeroing it up and doing the math we milled the new retaining pin holes for the 1/8 inch pins and prepped it for installation of the new u joint.
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With everything ready we installed the new u joint into the drive shaft. Carefully installing the caps and trying to avoid losing any of the roller bearings. Pressing them all the way in just far enough to insert the retaining pins.

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With that half finished we repeated the process for the yoke that bolts to the dif and completed the full assembly of the shaft

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The drive shaft completely reassembled

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Finished it off by welding the pins in and then a nice coat of paint
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Then reinstalled it into the car and it was so much smoother when you would get on the gas. My friend has already put almost 450 miles onto the car since and it rolling smooth now! I just wanted to throw some documentation up on the forums for this because I couldn't find anything about anyone really fixing this without going through buying a whole new drive shaft. The shop I had do all the machining is Kings machine and fabrication in Wheatland IA 563-221-1387. They have already done a couple of these for me so they have it down pretty well. Hope that helps anyone out who is having this problem on there e36!!

Thanks

[mndr0115]

Thank you!!

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I know this was like 5 years ago however... Considering a mechanic between his home and work may not have access to a mill, would you consider staking it back into place? Would that have been possible?