CV Joints

The clicking/clunking from the rear means time to change out the half shaft and switch with the remanufactured one from the BMW dealer. Assuming it is most noticeable turning a sharp left it would be the passenger side rear, correct?

With all of the Doug"s on the site, I thought I should use sonething different hence "decoupe" which is what my family calls the 73CS. But I'm really still Doug in Canmore.

Great to have the e9coupe site back - I'd be lost without it. Thanks Dang.

half shaft

gee, I've never had one go bad in my 14 or so bimmers. But I grabbed a pair from a Bav years ago, just in case. PM me (a long way from most of the rest of the gang) if you want to negotiate.

Thanks but already ordered the parts. Both rear CV's on my 320i (165k miles) have been replaced so either our roads are worse or this explains why I've never won a lottery.

My question still stands - noise worse when turning left so right side CV most likely?

Doug

CV's

Mine '73 CS has just started making a clunking noise in the rear while turning right. I suspect a CV also, but I haven't checked it out yet.

Dan

CV's

Welcome to the clunk, Dan.

Here's another question. I bought a re-manufactured sideshaft from BMW and as far as I can tell there is no difference between the inboard and outboard CV. If you order the CV's from Bav Auto, they don't list an inboard/outboard either.

So in it goes and hope for the best or is there some difference I can't see?

Doug

The CVs are the same

Also, if you jack up the rear end of the car, with trans in gear, you may be able to feel one side is 'looser' than the other by rocking each wheel back and forth.

Years ago, our daily driver 320i was clunking in the rear. A couple of times I jacked the car up trying to figure out where the problem was and the clunk would go away for a while! Finally figured out that apparently when I jacked it up, the CV interanal parts would move some and get more grease on them.

Its been a long time, but as I recall, I could feel a definite difference between the side with the worn joint and the other side.

Suggestion
Get the rear end up on ramps, so the load is still on the suspension, but you can get underneath. handbrake on! chock those wheels!
Grab each shaft in turn and apply a twist, see if there is play at either side. by trying to turn the prop shaft aback and forth you should be able to work out which one is worn.

Getting the shafts out is relatively easy, undo the Hex head bolts at either end so you could just take them off for a closer inspection...

While your at it repack both CV's on each shaft with grease and change the boots (rubber covers) at the same time, remember they are pretty old!

HTH
Malc

Malc:

Thanks for the advice.

I'm cheating on this - bought remanufactured sideshaft from dealer - complete unit with new inner/outer CV and boots. Twenty minute install versus several hours of somebody's labour makes the cost easy to rationalize.

Doug

re: cv joint

As an aside, a friend experienced very minor clicking and clunking from the rear of his 6cyl. The factory trained mechanic regreased the cv joints, rebushed one trailing arm and left my friend worrying when the rear wheel bearings would seize. By happenstance we discovered the noise was due to the exhaust pipe banging against to the spare tire well. Go figure!

Only under certain circumstances did anyone hear the noise.

CV joint

Any recommendations for source of CV?Interchange with other models?