Category Archives: Drivetrain

Driveshaft Heat Shield

With the single piece driveshaft and 3.5″ single exhaust I was finding that the heat shield between the exhaust and driveshaft was in contact with the exhaust, the space is tight between those two main components.

Audi B5 S4 single piece driveshaft and 034 single 3.5" exhaust pipe

I took a hammer and started strategically creating flat spots so that the driveshaft and the exhaust pipe each had some space with clearance to sit within.  I still need to do a test drive to ensure the driveshaft doesn’t rub anything. When I pressed on the heat shield I was getting movement of the heat shield where if it were too close to the driveshaft I’d have expected that there wouldn’t be any movement.  Hopefully that’s a good sign that the clearance is sufficient.

Audi B5 S4 driveshaft heat shield

 

Driveshaft install

I’ve gotten pretty far behind on making product reviews.  Added to the slate are these Stern motor mounts which are replacing a set of RS4 motor mounts.

Audi B5 S4 Stern Motor Mounts

Another new addition is a Driveshaft Shop single piece drive-shaft.  The driveshaft support had been damaged on the manual transmission driveshaft and in weighing my options, one being to purchase an aftermarket support to try and install, go with a completely re-manufactured driveshaft, or purchase the single piece unit, I decided the added cost would be worth the easier install and slightly lighter weight.  I will be interested to see if I notice a difference.

Driveshaft Shop single piece drive-shaft

I also began to re-install the motor and transmission.  I decided to begin trying to install the axles while the motor was still a good ways out from the mounts so that I could have an easier time of it.  That didn’t work as well as I had planned and after a good 3 to 4 hours of work I finally had inched, literally, the motor into position where I could bolt the axles to the transmission.  At times I was lowering the motor a half an inch at a time to ensure nothing was being bound up or crushed.  I’m seriously considering just installing the axles after the motor is in place the next time I do this.

As an additional note, I connected the stainless steel slave cylinder line while the motor was pretty far out.  It was a fair bit more difficult to get the AN fittings to thread properly versus the stock configuration which just snaps into place.  I ended up removing the driver’s side primary O2 sensor so that I could get my hand into a position where I could get the threads to mesh properly.   With the O2 sensor out of the way things went smoother.

I also ended up removing the bottom portion of the transmission mounts so that I could manipulate the axles.  Yet another reason to think about installing the axles at the end the next time,

Audi B5 S4 engine installation