Just bought my first awd and the drive shaft is sitting in the back seat

[skapegoat]

I'm new here and spent all morning searching and found nothing. I bought a 95 tsi awd and what I would call the tailhousing was in a bag on the back seat in pieces along with the drive shaft. I put the car on the lift and found what looked like a shaft with a big nut and something twisted off the center of the nut. I'm not really sure what these parts are called so it is hard to search. My big question is do I need to replace the entire t-case or unbolt the big nut on the shaft and find replacement parts for the ones that are missing and in pieces and try to piece it back together?

 

[Tyeler18]

Like stated above, you can't drive it without the tcase. The center differential is a viscous coupler. Trying to drive it without the t-case will cause it to lock up and then you're going to need a tranny too.

 

[skapegoat]

This morning I put it on the lift and went through all of the gears with no load on the car and all of the gears worked well. So I shouldn't have to worry about the trans. So as far as the drive shaft Why does everyone say I have to replace it? Can't I just get new u-joints pressed in?

 

[BadTalon]

They are telling you to replace it because they know what they are talking about. I've done plenty of driveline damage to my jeep over the years. Those things are easier to bend than you'd think. At the very least, bring it to your local driveline shop and have it checked for balance. An out of balance shaft causes heavy vibrations at highway/high speeds, not to mention its hell on your rear end and tcase output shaft. Play it safe and have it checked out, or buy a new/new to you driveline. Good luck!

 

[H@xtGSX]

My last vehicle was a very built up 2000 Jeep Wrangler... On shafts that short, it is pretty hard to get the shaft so out of balance you fracture the yoke on the transfer case. I totally agree an out of balance drive shaft isn't good, but I have yet to see one literally shear off a connection. If you are driving a Jeep that has shaft shaking that bad, you seriously need to check if the shaft is still straight. I have bent a shaft hill climbing, and it never became apparent until I got the Jeep up to about 60 mph. After that, it'd shake like crazy, making the transfer case yoke slam around bad enough you could feel it under the seat.

In a DSM that shaft is definently longer, but the double linkage would make so much noise before something like that, the most inept person on Earth would know something was seriously wrong long before it snapped a yoke shaft. The only way something like that could happen would be either the transfer case ran dry and locked up, or the guy before was running so much power that the turbo decided to pretzel the shaft... My money is in the first option.

 

[skapegoat]

As far as I can tell the car is bone stock. I read somewhere on this forum that there was a factory recall on the drain plug leaking and causing problems such as the t-case running dry and blowing up. I'm wondering if I should contact a Mitsubishi dealer about it and try to get a replacement t-case.

 

[knochgoon24]

Here's one part that may help you out.

Transfer Case Recall Kit-DSM : JNZ Tuning

 

[n0de]

can someone else confirm, I think with a VCE or a welded Center Diff you can, but I think I read somewhere that just taking off the transfer case and driving messes something up (center diff?)

EDIT: (VCE-viscous coupler eliminator)

Well if the trans is anything like the 3000gt vr4 trans then yes you will mess up you VCU, it will burn itself up within a mile or less of driving without the t-case on.