Chris

I'm pretty familiar with the issue you are dealing with, as I have had to go through similar diagnosis and repair on my 88 535is. If the clunking only takes place during constant acceleration in lower gears, you can almost certainly rule out the drive shaft. Most likely it is the center support bearing that is the problem. When the rubber gets old, it allows the drive shaft to hit the chassis as you accelerate in first gear. Clunking related to the center support bearing normally doesn't happen in higher gears than 1st. If I were you I would just replace the flexdisc and the center support bearing. Unless you also have vibrations in the drive shaft (vibrations would be noticable at speeds around 30-50), you should not have to replace the drive shaft. Just follow directions in your Bentley manual (if you don't have it get it), as they are very detailed. If your 325 is similar set up to my 535is, you need to pre-load the center support bearing (very important). When installing the center support bearing you need to split the drive shaft, but make sure to mark both sides of the drive shaft so that you can get it together in the same splines (if you don't the drive shaft will most likely be unbalanced and cause vibrations). On most cars you need to remove the exhaust, as it is in the way. I just separated it between the header and the cat, then remove the exhaust hangers and dropped the exhaust in one piece. After that you should have clear access to the drive shaft. Then remove the drive shaft at the flexdisc, followed by separating the drive shaft in the middle to swap out the center support bearing. Then you just need to put it all back together. But definitively follow instructions in Bentley as it will give you step by step instructions.

Let me know if you need more help diagnosing the clunks.

I'm glad to see that you have a 928 5sp. Are you by any chance a member of Nord Stern (PCA Minnesota chapter)? If so, I hope to see you up at BIR this summer.

Hakan

'88 535is MM
'94 530it
'87 Porsche 944 turbo

• Driveshaft/ U-Joint - oscill8 2005-03-18 12:29:42 (465 views)
  • Re: Driveshaft/ U-Joint - 951zermattsilber 2005-03-18 13:44:25 (523 views)
    • Re: Driveshaft/ U-Joint - stuart 2005-03-18 20:40:06 (386 views)
    • Re: Driveshaft/ U-Joint - oscill8 2005-03-18 14:18:20 (375 views)