Output Shaft Removal?

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canada karl
Posts: 1058
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:50 pm

Output Shaft Removal?

Post by canada karl »

I have a parts car that I am trying to remove the output shaft from so I don't have to buy a new one ($450). The filister head screws are "really" locked in there and I am soaking the hell out of them with PB Blaster. They are 8 MM screws as far as I can tell? I tried breaking them free with a 3/8s socket wrench and pipe but no go. Wondering if an 8 mm impact socket would break them free? I don't want to round out the inside head of the fillister screw.
Any advice most appreciated.
1976 530i. BMW 59 Triumph TR3A(rolling resto). 67 Triumph TR4A(salvageable). 86 900S Winter car
canada karl
Posts: 1058
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:50 pm

Re: Output Shaft Removal?

Post by canada karl »

Well i got the output shaft out.I got the filister head screws to move by putting a a floor jack under the breaker bar with the 8mm socket. Only rounded off two screw heads that I ended up cutting off. Are there no backyard mechanics on this forum or does everyone just take their car to the shop???
1976 530i. BMW 59 Triumph TR3A(rolling resto). 67 Triumph TR4A(salvageable). 86 900S Winter car
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Mike W.
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Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2006 12:12 am
Location: Sonoma County

Re: Output Shaft Removal?

Post by Mike W. »

Nope, see to some of us rust is just a theoretical concept. :D

I have been known to resort to a Vice Grips on the head along with the socket at yards but I'm not sure that would have helped.
Mike W.



1980 528i, 3.5 euro, 5 speed conversion
1981 528i, 3.6, Recaros and more. Project
1998 328is, quick and efficient, but not satisfying
2000 528iit, Vacation mobile/wife's grocery getter
waltb
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:20 pm
Location: South Western, PA

Re: Output Shaft Removal?

Post by waltb »

I think most of us work on our own cars.

What you did is what you needed to do. I would have used either an air impact wrench with a good tight fitting 8mm hex bit and cleaning out the inside hex first or even my old hit it with a hammer impact driver with a good 8mm hex bit. You could have used some heat. You could have used a chisel to hit the outside of the head tangentially to hopefully crack them loose. There are many ways to get the rusted stuck inside hex bolts off. I find the air/electric/ manual impact wrenches tends to be better to break stuck bolts loose than breaker bars and slow and steady leverage. I think I have stripped and snapped more things using hand tools than when using impact wrenches. No matter what the wrench, the most important thing is to have a good high quality tight fitting hex bit.

Walt B.
'80 528i
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528i-1981
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Location: Franklin, TN

Re: Output Shaft Removal?

Post by 528i-1981 »

And the one ingredient we so seldom seem to have much of .... patience and time. Squirting penetrating oil repeatedly and over time makes a big difference. But who has time for that ????? I only learned this from necessity - I had only a few seconds a day to obsess over a stuck rusted bolt over the course of a week. A squirt here, a squirt there. Next think you know, you're talking real rotation. Of course I have a 4-foot length of pipe that slips handily over my 1/2" breaker bar.
(oo=00=oo) Eric
1981 528i Manual
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