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For us 5-speed folks, is there a way to check that things are OK without removing the rear bolt? Back when this came up last, I bought new bolts but never put them in...I'm just leery of removing something that "seems" to be holding properly. And by seems, I mean I don't sense anything out of the ordinary when driving it, but I haven't measured or observed anything directly, because I'm not sure how to do that, other than by removing the existing bolt.
There were no visible signs, or driving issues, with either of my cars. The migration of the shaft, and consequent bolt difficulty of removal and damage, was only identified upon removal of the rear bolt. I strongly recommend that you go through the bolt removal, shaft location check, and bolt renewal procedure outlined.
The consequences of just leaving it could potentially be shaft damage as a minimum, and at worst a cracked gearbox input shaft $$$$$$$$$
Edit: and Freds confusing issue ... simple ... he must be a lead foot ....
Dave,
LMAO!
At one stage I used to joke that maybe it is a sign of the thing having been driven as it was intended to be used. When the obvious have been eliminated from the investigation you have to start looking at the more absurd possibilities.
When one does not know what the cause is it is absurd to eliminate any possibility- this is what a good incident investigator knows.
My first impression was that the detente is larger than it should be but that could be the angle of the shot and the lack of focus in that region so I figured the "expert eye "is worth much more at this stage.
A shot with the detente at 90 degrees to the axis of the camera might be more meaningful? The bolts look fine to me- nothing out of the ordinary as I can tell.
The threads on the bolt on the right closest to the unthreaded section look hammered to me. They could have been flattened when the bolt was removed, if it was hard up against the shaft.
To my eyes, it looks like the rear flex plate splined coupler cutout has some roughness around its edges. Seems like it got banged around a bit. The machined cutout is usually much smoother around its edges.
Looking past the cutout to the groove of the drive shaft, it looks like there is some damage on the drive shaft on its right side in the picture.
Also agree with Martin that the right bolt's threads are deformed. They have the classic "forced through" look to them. They should look as clean as the left bolt's threads.
01-06-2017, 07:35 PM
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