drive shaft....

[bosco]

It all of a sudden hit me that I don't remember removing a thrust spring from the drive shaft at the transmission when I removed them (drive shaft and trans.) a few weeks ago. At least I can't find one (it's possible I've lost it I guess) and the more i think about it i dont remember seeing one.

Is it possible to drive the car without one?? When I slide the drive shaft into the transmission it feels like there is one inside the tail housing.....there is resistance pushing back....so are there two.....an internal and external??????

[kwilford]

This exact issue came up a year or so back when I rebuilt Kat's GT. Well, not a complete rebuild, but darn close to what can be humanly done in three nights and two days, working almost around the clock. After re-installing her engine and sending her back on the road to Leduc (a three hour drive), I noticed the thrust spring lying on my garage floor. Oops! So I polled this group and the classicopels folks, and I believe that the advice was similar. It won't do any damage for the spring to missing for a while, but in time the propeller shaft (the front shaft, versus the rear shaft that Opel calls a "drive pinion extension shaft") will "walk" forward, and actually might pull the extension shaft out of the splines that it engages with in the differential flange.

But the thrust spring does sit right inside the transmission tail-shaft housing, so perhaps it just never came out, and is still there. But the only way to know for sure is to unbolt the U-joints and see if the "spring" (resistance to moving the prop shaft forward) is still there.

HTH

[bosco]

Thanks Keith,

I still have the transmission on my workbench putting in new seals (getting ready to grind off the passenger side linkage)......and I can put the driveshaft into the transmission and feel it "push back" . I just thought there was a part of the spring that was visible outside the transmission. Sounds like mine is ok.

It's been 25 yrs since I've worked on one of these......I remember just enough to be dangerous....plus I seem to have lost my new intake manifold studs and I figured the spring might have run away with them.

[namba209]

When I got the T-5 tranny for my V-6 swap, I called Gil at OGTS and he had me measure the inside of the front U-Joint yoke and the outside of the tranny output shaft, then sent me a spring that fit inside the yoke and rode against the tailshaft. I guess it is possible that a spring could be installed large enough to fit outside the yoke and press against the rear oil seal/bearing in the tail shaft housing. But I would think it's not a good thing. If you don't have the spring, OGTS has an assortment of them for various applications. HTH.

Ron

[Gary]

The T-5 tail shaft is the same size/spline as the Opel automatic.

[namba209]

That could very well be Gary. I don't know for sure, I got the front yoke that came with the S-10 T-5 tranny and there was no spring in it, so I called Gil and he set me up with a spring that works as it is supposed to. I don't think there is a spring in the original S-10 application.

Ron