Standard Mischief

I must say, one of the worst remove and replace jobs on Toyota Camry cars is the driveshaft (ugh, I mean “half shaft”, that’s apparently what everyone uses). I’ve only done three, and this one has been by far the worst.

I’ve done other makes, and they have been removed via some hex bolts, or roll pins or even just yanking hard, without even disassembly of the suspension. Toyota sux in this regard (though I think they get the rest of the car pretty much right).

Unless you have arrived here via a search engine, this is going to be a boring post. It’s also most unchristmas-like, despite the date, so you have been warned.

–below the fold–

Anyway, I’ve never been a fan of the speedy boots, and rebuilt driveshafts are pretty cheap, so I decided to go that route.

The first thing to do is get the car up and on a jackstand. Remove the wheel, the driveshaft nut, then the brakes, and then the brake disk rotor. By unbolting the lower control arm, you can pivot the strut away from the car and get enough slack to remove the driveshaft from the center of the wheel (steering knuckle). (That’s about all the detail you are going to get, this is not a how-to here.)

Now comes the PITA part, removing the other end from the transaxial. There is a specal type of snap ring keeping the shaft in place, you don’t have to remove it before you pull the driveshaft. In fact you can’t, because it’s inside the transaxel, inaccessible There is a special tool, but I did not find it promptly because I was searching for “driveshaft” and not “half shaft”. It was also just days before Christmas, and I was not able to find it locally, and I was not going to attempt to have it shipped.

If you are swapping out the driveshaft, at this point it’s to your advantage to remove the large clamp around the inner CVJ rubber boot and remove most of driveshaft. If you think you will ever have to reassemble, put witness marks on the driveshaft, so you can reassemble exactly as before. Now you have just the stub in the transaxial. If you’re lucky, and especially if you have the car up on a lift, you can use an assortment of prybars and pop that joint out with a bunch of luck. I recommend a slide hammer. After swearing and prying a full day, I broke down and tried to locate one. I was able to borrow this tool, by putting down a c-note as a deposit. I used the single hook tool on one of the ridges on the side of the driveshaft stub and got that puppy out in about three slaps. It’s easy with the right tools.

Getting the new one in was fun. Coat the end with Dexron and align the snap ring so the opening is facing down. Wiggle while sticking it in, so the teeth engage properly. There will be some resistance, but it should be easier than prying the damn thing out. I’m ashamed to admit this, but when it got stuck on me, I got out the BFH.

Normally I have a bit more finesse than this, but it was late and I am claiming fatigue. I tried to insert the male end without Dexron lubrication, and also apparently my snap ring got snagged. I got stuck about halfway in. Because it was a hassle getting it out in the first place, I figured it would be tough to get it back in. I got the thing jammed. It was pure heck getting it back out too. The snap ring and my BFH really tore up those spines.

After careful inspection, the inner spines on the transaxial seemed to be OK. Some engineer over at Toyota likely spec that part to a higher hardness. I ended up making up a frankenstein driveshaft consisting of the inner undamaged part of the old driveshaft attached to the rest of the new part. I used a heavy duty handcuff sized zip-tie to replace the metal clamp that is usually used to hold the boot attached to the driveshaft. I’ve used the zip-ties before in this way, and I know that it works very well. The best part is that no special tools are needed.

Reassembly is the reverse of removal (heh). Actually you kinda need three hands here when you go to attach the lower control arm. I had a helper on the pry bar, forcing the lower arm down to it’s full travel so I could ease the strut over, engage the studs, and tighten the screws. That’s the only tricky part. I put a new rotor in and tried to replace the front pads, but I found out that they did not have the proper holes for the anti-rattle springs. The old ones were only slightly worn, so I reused them.

The other PITA part of this job is the dust screen that’s on the back side of the rotor. If you are not careful, you will bend it, and then it will scrape on the wheel rim when you reassemble it.

I used a 10, 14, 17 and 30 mm sockets, extensions and ratchets. A few pry bars that did not work, a slide hammer that did, can of brake cleaner, new pads, rotors, a zip-tie, a little Dexron, and a ball peen hammer. You also needed a torque wrench that goes up to 217 foot-pounds, if you want to do this job by the book. I should not have used that 3 pound sledge (aka BFH). I got the procedure by accessing Mitchell “on demand”, and printing out the proper pages. It’s just barely adequate. I wish I had the factory manual.

If you drain the transaxial, like the procedure tells you to, you will need a 10 mm allen head socket, and a funnel attached to a long piece of hose to refill.

That’s just about everything I wish I knew before I started, so there. You’re welcome. I haven’t been able to find anything good online (especially regarding the snap ring) If you’re facing the same thing, I hope you end up finding your way here first.

(Update: I did the other side a bit later. I had a heck of a time because the bearing was seized on it’s holder. Kroll to the rescue. Read all about it here.)