buy and replace front drive shaft on a c4 -1999 tiptroninc

[kjoh1]

Hi everyone!

One of my front outer CV-joint is broken on my 996 c4 -1999 tiptronic. and as i understand I need to replace the hole driveshaft. So my question is if someone here have experience of this? Is it a DIY jobb or am I better of taking it to a mechanic? any special tols involved?

And any tips on where to buy/ renovate the driveshaft preferably in Europe?

Thanks

Johan

Sweden

[creekman]

Johan,

Yes, this should be an easy DIY project. You'll need to know the torque settings for the universal bolts. Do you have a Bentley's manual, if not that would be a good investment to make before any project. If you need the torque information I can look it up for you.

It appears that the drive shaft comes as a unit. I have one for sale after removing my front diff, but any savings would be offset by the shipping cost.

Johan,

[xmac]

I think you are talking about replacing the whole CV axle not the front differential driveshaft. Pelican has a pretty good write-up:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Porsche-996-997-Carrera/41-TRANS-Replacing_CV_Joints/41-TRANS-Replacing_CV_Joints.htm

The hardest part is removing the large nut holding the axle onto the hub which will be 80% of the job. I like to loosen it slightly with the wheels on the ground prior to taking things apart (wheel center cap removed). Make sure you use a new axle nut and tighten it to spec. I believe it is 340 ft-lbs, so the right tools are needed.

[Ronnie38]

the problem with DIY and high toque numbers is we forget the whole foot pounds thing, a 3.4 foot long wrench needs 100 pounds of pull. a 100 foot long wrench would need 3.4 pounds of pull. so do the math. I use a fish scale to pull the wrench to the required poundage.