Diagnosing bad driveshaft components?

[AhrnNilsson]

Hi My t5.1 has a clunk when starting and shifting from 1st to 2nd hard or when shifting to reverse. I’m pretty sure it’s the drive or stub shaft. I jacked up the front wheels today the right side has huge play it feels like it’s 5cm or more, left side has half maybe 2 or 3. I tested on another t5 the play on the left and that was like 1cm. I know inner and outer cvs are replaceable. What part is most likely bad? No other noises or split boots, is the play from spines or the cv usually? I could pull everything out and test play and examine splines? Or is everything most likely shot? I don’t have big budget but I do have time and could leave it on axelstands while ordering parts.

 

[weety]

How did you get on with this as I am suffering from exactly the same issue!

 

[bluezie]

You need to completely remove the offside drive shaft to inspect the transfer shaft, and gearbox stub shaft splines for wear. If there is any wear present, you need to replace both.
This is a very well known weak point, and will be 99% certain where it's failed.

 

[weety]

Thanks for this, would you fork out a small fortune and buy geniune VW Transfer Shaft and gearbox stub or go cheap OEM from Autodoc or J&R? The difference in price is vast!

 

[AhrnNilsson]

hi yeah so like bluzie said I jacked up the van and inspected the play and I realized the right side driveshaft has a crazy amount of play so I removed the balljoint and axel nut and removed everything including draining gearbox and removing stubshaft. The stub and inner cv was completely chewed so I bet it just had a few km left on them. I bought new inner cv and stub shaft from SKF they seem good and cheap I didn’t change the outer cv since it looks fine. Parts where cheap compared to Vw they are ridiculously expensive. I still didn’t drive it yet I’m very busy and need to replace the tire rod and maybe a cambelt when I’m at it

 

[weety]

hi yeah so like bluzie said I jacked up the van and inspected the play and I realized the right side driveshaft has a crazy amount of play so I removed the balljoint and axel nut and removed everything including draining gearbox and removing stubshaft. The stub and inner cv was completely chewed so I bet it just had a few km left on them. I bought new inner cv and stub shaft from SKF they seem good and cheap I didn’t change the outer cv since it looks fine. Parts where cheap compared to Vw they are ridiculously expensive. I still didn’t drive it yet I’m very busy and need to replace the tire rod and maybe a cambelt when I’m at it

Can you take the driveshaft apart then and replace the inner only? Is that the hollow tube bit? Can't find any info about taking the driveshaft apart anywhere.

 

[bluezie]

Can you take the driveshaft apart then and replace the inner only? Is that the hollow tube bit? Can't find any info about taking the driveshaft apart anywhere.

I have read that the tube transfer half of the driveshaft is available separate to the outer half. (Aftermarket , not VW)
Dismantling will be similar to others, take the boot off, and hunt for the circlip in the grease.

 

[AhrnNilsson]

Yes the inner is the long part with a bearing, you can find it from AUTODOC easily. The stub shafts have 2 different sizes for your information. The inner cv and the axle are just held on by a clip or 2, very simple you will realize when you remove cv boot how it’s held together. When assembling I just punched it down with the help of a bench vice to get the clip to lock in that’s in my opinion the most messy and annoying part of the whole job. If you don’t want to deal with it then just buy a complete axle set.