Is my Guibo to far gone for The Vintage

[jp5Touring]

So under the car nut and bolting things everything is good until.  I check out the Guibo and find cracks on both sides of it. Well Shit.

It's 1400 miles round trip. I think I know the answer but I'll ask is it too far gone and would one risk the drive to The Vintage ?  No one local has the part of course.

 

I can still go but I think I'm taking my E39. 

 

Thoughts ?

[M3M3]

that thing is done.

[John76]

Try BluntTech. 

They can ship fast if they have it in stock.

Great service!

[Lorin]

This why next day air shipping exists!

Get to work !

[AustrianVespaGuy]

Yes, yes it is, and it really isn't fun to drive with a broken guibo for LOTS of reasons.  Pay for fast shipping and replace it quick!

[jimk]

With a mis-aligned driveshaft, should always carry a spare guibo.

[jp5Touring]

Thanks guys figured as much. Checking on parts now.

[jp5Touring]

5 minutes ago, jimk said:

With a mis-aligned driveshaft, should always carry a spare guibo.

Are you saying I have a mis-aligned driveshaft  ?

[FunElan]

15 minutes ago, jp5Touring said:

Are you saying I have a mis-aligned driveshaft  ?

 

Those don't look like age related cracks, so your driveshaft may not be perfectly aligned. For what it's worth, I've done a Monterey trip on a flex disc that was a little bit better than yours and made it, but I wouldn't try that again. 

 

Sincerely, 

someone who has had to have the DS professionally aligned 3 times after my 5 speed conversion

[FunElan]

also, cue discussion about direction of the bolts. Curious to hear what people think now. I used to never see people have the bolts all going the same direction, now it's more common

[jp5Touring]

Thanks for all the info and insight on this.  This is PO work so will check it all out.

I did a quick and dirty level check with my iphone to get a general idea of alignment.

Never done driveshaft alignment so will read up on it.  Bottom of trans case was a -2° and driveshaft was at 0° if that's even a proper way to measure. 

The center bearing looks really good and diff looked pretty squared up.

I was getting a slight whine lately which I thought might be a wheel bearing just starting to go.

There was/is no vibration in the driveshaft that I could tell for what thats worth.

 

Will also get new bolts they appear to be mismatched and check out proper direction.

 

[FunElan]

If I recall, @eurotrash has a method using a fancy yardstick or something. Hoping Jason can chime in

[thehackmechanic]

I'll be the contrarian here. You have a giubo that is cracking, but is not yet cracked all the way through. Yes, in a perfect world you'd replace it before setting out on a 1400-mile round trip, but if you can't, I wouldn't cancel the trip. Baby it, don't do hard pulls up to redline, and you'll probably be fine.

 

Regarding alignment of the driveshaft, the factory manual has illustrations showing using a straightedge and two blocks of wood to make sure the two halves before and after the center support bearing are straight with each other, but over time, many folks have come to believe that that doesn't matter nearly as much as having the front part of the driveshaft perfectly square with the giubo. This is accomplished by loosening the bolts holding in the giubo, raising or lowering the center support bearing and/or sliding it left to right, and watching to see if the gaps between the driveshaft flange and the giubo are uniform at 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock. Search here on the FAQ and you'll find many posts about it.

 

Good luck!

 

--Rob

[John76]

RE: bolts and orientation.

Factory spec calls for Grade 10.9 bolts.

The nuts should always be on the flange side of the driveshaft.

You may have caused a twisting motion on the guibo metal sleeve when tightening the nuts against the rubber.

 

[Son of Marty]

I think I would throw the spare in the trunk along with a tool kit and a small tarp, if push came to shove you could change it on the way, it might not be ideal but it's doable