Dismantling and installation of the drive shaft (VW Golf 3)

The wheel cap is removed and the nuts are unscrewed.

The axle nut is loosened when the wheels are on the floor. This nut is tightened very tightly

The front side of the car is lifted and placed on trestles. It is not necessary to remove the wheel to perform this work.

The bolts of the shaft with the flange on the gearbox are unscrewed. To do this, you should use a multi-toothed nozzle with a diameter of 8 mm, which looks like a wrench with a hexagon, but instead of 6 planes it has 12 planes.

The shaft is disconnected from the gearbox and lifted upward.

(The original article is available at: «VWmanual.ru»)



To remove the drive shaft, you need to release the wheel hub bearing housing on the upper side from the shock absorber strut. To do this, you need to unscrew the bolts and nuts and press the bearing housing (steering knuckle) to the side.

When removing the drive shaft, never heat the wheel hub to remove the shaft, as this may damage the wheel hub bearing.

The drive shaft is pulled out of the steering knuckle while the wheel is pulled outward.

After the half shaft has been removed, the car cannot be moved, otherwise the wheel hub bearing may be damaged. If the car does need to be moved, you can try to get an old outer constant velocity joint from a Volkswagen car repair shop. This can be inserted instead of the half shaft. The nut is tightened to a torque of 50 Nm.



The drive shaft is installed in the reverse order of disassembly.

It is necessary to thoroughly clean the gear engagement of the drive shaft and the inner surface of the wheel hub from grease and oil. The half shaft is inserted into the hub again.

The axle nut is tightened with a tightening torque of 265 Nm (if the car is back on its wheels). The drive shaft flange bolts are tightened to 45 Nm. Don't forget the plates under the two bolts.

The constant velocity joint has a seal if it is one of the more powerful models (constant velocity joint diameter 100 mm). To replace this seal, you need to pull off the protective film from the new seal and stick the seal onto the constant velocity joint.