I'm in the process of replacing my clutch (finally!) and can't seem to get the drive shaft to let go of the diff. I unbolted it per the Haynes manual and it says to lower it and slide it to the rear lol but mine doesn't want to do that. I did a quick brows but real need a quick answer cuz I gotta get her done by tomorrow. Also do I really need the heat shields that go between the exhaust and the body? Just curious.

Thanks
Joe

 

use a flathead to pry it of the differential, then slide it toward the front of the car until it clears the diff.

heatshields are a good idea, but not necessary.

 

As he said, they normally rust together and don't like to come part easily. One thing that I do normally do is put some Anti seize inbetween them to not get them stuck. You might want to wire brush both ends first though.

 

i did a drive shaft replacement recently. mine was kind of stuck at first but i just used a screw driver like stated above and pried it loose. it shouldnt be too hard. good luck!

 

one more thing... i made this mistake. if you are taking your driveshaft off, remember to drain your tranny. i made a huge mess in my driveway. the entire transmission drained all over me and my drive way. good luck!

 

I've taken the driveshaft out without spilling anything. I think as long as the car isn't tilted back, it should be fine.

Also heatshields between exhaust and body do help, as the exahust gets very hot. I keep mine. Doesn't take too long to remove, only a few bolts.

 

yeah shortly after i posted this my sisters bf got under there and got it to come off. i tried to pry them apart but couldnt seem to get a screw driver between them but luckily he managed to. as far as the heat shields i havent put them back on yet. my exhaust hangs down a lil away from the body so im gonna see how it goes without them.

also when i pulled the car into the garage it was a steep incline, i had to go very slow and had less than 1/4 of a tank so as i was finally getting it in it started to spotter right before i shut it off and when i started it back up after the clutch swap it sputtered a lot and did it the whole way home but progressively less so hopefully it was just from air in the fuel lines.

 

as far as heat-shields go. i haven't had mine on for 3 years, i only left the one near the gas tank for added security and one underneath the intake manifold of course. haven't noticed a difference. it's been in the upper 90's and lower 100's this summer and the only thing i've noticed was that after 5 hrs of constant driving one day the floor board on passenger's side got a bit warm. but nothing uncomfortable.

so unless you do some sort of racing or a lot of driving in one day, i'd say leave them off. extra weight, and if you're missing a screw or two it could create rattling and also be annoying to do any work under there.

 

thanks for the post and the info, I'm in the process of trying to remove my drive shaft right now and I can't get it off for the life of me. I need to replace the seal from the drive shaft to the transmission, at least i hope it will fix my problem. The whole under my car is covered in transmission oil so hopefully this will do the trick. thanks again

 

if you have a cat you need the heatsheilds. i melted the carpet in demonspawns car....

 

Yeah I'm running no cats or presilencers with a rb road race header and from the header to where the ends to where the rb power pulse muffler begins I'm running a piece of (I believe) 2 inch straight pipe (whatever it is it's larger than stock and matches the header but is bigger than the rb muffler pipe) and the only heat shield I'm using is the one between the muffler an the gas tank. Hopefully next spring I'll be replacing the muffler and matching the size of the header and straight pipe.

 

i've used a hammer to get the shaft away from the diff flange enough to get a screw driver blade in there. and when i pull the tranny, i leave the shaft in it.

 

Heat shields are there for a reason. before starting any job, spray all the bolts with wd40 and go have a coffee, also easily with the air guns.

 

I'm currently only using the heatshield between the muffler and the fuel tank and haven't had any problems but I have a fairly non restrictive exhaust

 

I dont use heat shield and I dont give a **** about the heat. I dont sit in the passenger side anyway. lol

 

Not even the one between the muffler and the fuel tank?

 

no shielding here either. throwd it all away.

 

that one stays