[nibbslang]

Hi all

I recently have had to replace my left side drive shaft also known as the output shaft.
I unbolted it from the diff, and the hub put could not get it to move below the diff to pull it out of the hub, brake hose and diff housing is in the way.
The right hand side shaft was easy as non of these obstructions are on the right hand side of the car.
Does anyone have any idea how i can get the drive shaft out? Do I need to remove the exhaust and heat shield to allow for more room?
Any help is much appreciated.

[Efthreeoh]

I did my halfshafts a few years ago, so I'm going from my very old-brain memory... I'm pretty sure you have to pull the exhaust for the left side. I remember that instance of pulling the exhaust was the time I could not reuse the exhaust flange studs, and had to drill them out (total PIA).

[nibbslang]

Many thanks for your reply, i was hoping i could just drop the exhaust a little to get the shaft out. It's good to know that i will need to move the exhaust and i wasn't going crazy and missing some simple way of getting the half shaft out.

[nibbslang]

*SOLVED* For information, I did the left hand side drive/Half shaft replacement this weekend and to my surprise I did not have to remove the exhaust.
What I noticed doing this job is that when you have jacked up the car and taken the wheel off you can access the differential bolts one at a time by rotating the hub. Then the drive shaft can be removed but only pushed upward which is no good at all, so i aligned it back up with the differential and then jacked up the hub so that the suspension was fully compressed.
Then the shaft can be pulled down and the hub nut removed and the shaft then will slot out above the exhaust.
When researching this online or Youtube vids no one tells you this so I hope this helps if your going to tackle the left hand side drive shaft.

[wrongmark]

Originally Posted by nibbslang

*SOLVED* For information, I did the left hand side drive/Half shaft replacement this weekend and to my surprise I did not have to remove the exhaust.
What I noticed doing this job is that when you have jacked up the car and taken the wheel off you can access the differential bolts one at a time by rotating the hub. Then the drive shaft can be removed but only pushed upward which is no good at all, so i aligned it back up with the differential and then jacked up the hub so that the suspension was fully compressed.
Then the shaft can be pulled down and the hub nut removed and the shaft then will slot out above the exhaust.
When researching this online or Youtube vids no one tells you this so I hope this helps if your going to tackle the left hand side drive shaft.

Yes!!! Thank you. I was about to give up. All YouTube vids seem to just do the right hand side, which is easy. I did take the back two rubber exhaust mounts off to give myself a bit more wiggle room.