How do i disconnect Driveshaft??

well you saw the question, so how do i do it?

i need to know ASAP because i'm gonna tow my car behind a U-Haul and i need to disconnect the driveshaft so that i can roll the front wheels onto the trailer while the rear two sit on the ground. make sense?

its really important that i get good instructions since i've never done anything like this before. thanks, guys.

How about just put the back wheels on the trailer instead? That way you don't have to worry about disconnecting the driveshaft. Or, for the truly ingenious, rent a tow dolly and put the back wheels on that?

:dontknow:

this doesnt make any sense at all, we dont have AWD vehicles, the fronts can spin independently of the rear...

Indeedy, use neutral, off you go...

this doesnt make any sense at all, we dont have AWD vehicles, the fronts can spin independently of the rear...

your geoff, however he is probly worried about the shifter slipping into a gear while going down the road....which would be bad. Also, the odometer would gain extra mileage on the car even though he didn't run it.

Take a look for clearence for when you drop it down. The ebrake cable may be in the way...was for me. If so, remove what is nessary.
To remove the drive shaft you need to unbolt it from the rear diff. There are four bolts. Then the center section needs to be unbolted, two more bolts. It should then slide out of the tranny.

WARNING: remember to block the wheels before doing this or your car may roll.

Thats about it...right guys?

again....

How about just put the back wheels on the trailer instead? .....
Or, for the truly ingenious, rent a tow dolly and put the back wheels on that?

no mileage added, no worries about the trans slipping into gear, all this ANNNND.....

you don't have to worry about disconnecting the driveshaft.

edit: and killing yourself cuz you couldn't find a block of wood lying around

You can take out the front portion of the drive shaft vs the back portion.....it's a lot easier. Just remove the 4 bolts that connect the front half to the center section......mark each section with a paint pen so you can re-install it in the same position. Once the 4 bolts are out...it will slide right out. Make note that you need to drain tranny fluid when taking out the front shaft....other wise you'll have a big mess when you pull out the yoke.
You can rent a car carier which trailers the car with all 4 wheels off the ground vs just the front 2......doesn't cost that much more than the tow dolly. I rented one when I moved from FL to CA, and it was only like $150 for 14 days.

Have we all forgotten that the driveshaft keeps the fluid from leaking out the tailshaft?

The chances of the car slipping into gear is so small it's an irrelivant point to make.

If you're worried about adding miles to the odometer then just disconnect the speedo cable and make sure that it won't slide out of the housing (this happend to me when dropping the trans out of an 84 turbo). Either that or remove the instrument cluster.

But there is no good reason to disconnsct the driveshaft to tow it.

If it were an auto there might be an argument for it. This being that there would be no lubrication because the torque converter drives the pump in the auto trans and could cause damage to the output shaft.

In a 5 speed this problem does not exist. The gears are partially submerged in lubricant and splash it around the case no matter where the driving power comes from. So towing the car with the shaft in place will not cause any problems.

Thank you VG! I was about to say the same thing. DO NOT REMOVE THE FRONT HALF OF THE DRIVESHAFT FROM THE TRANSMISSION! The tranny fluid would leak out. If you're really worried about it, just disconnect the back half of the driveshaft only, but if it's a manual transmission car, just leave the driveshaft in.

Dont trust leaving in the drive shaft, a couple of years ago my dad and I were towing a 67 cuda home, when the tranny droped into gear, freeking riped the drive shaft straight out of the car, chewed up the tunnel, and broke the output shaft straight off. I'd go with the full trailer.

I'm sorry, I don't understand how a car "suddenly drops into gear".

On a crusty old 727, I can see maybe, just maybe if everything was loose enough, and it was column shifted, and you hit a bump, and it somehow cleared the gate, and somehow gravity dropped it from neutral to drive.

But, here's a thought ... maybe your auto tranny didn't "drop into gear". Maybe you were towing a RWD auto nose up in neutral, without the pump spinning, the tranny got so hot it locked up, that makes sense.

But yeah, towing a manual 5 spd car, you don't need to do it.

You can take out the front half of the drive shaft........it's a hell of a lot easier to gain access to the 4 bolts than the rear section is.....and draining the tranny fluid first.....which I previously stated......is a no brainer.

Actually it is a 4 spd. I think it poped in gear when we hit a bump, the shifter on the thing isnt the tightest thing. anyway, just tellin ya it can happen.