82 240d Project Issues
 

Hi, wondered if anyone had answers as to why my front driveshaft from an 80 240d manual is about an inch and a half too short? I put in an engine from that 80 car plus a manual transmission from an 80 300d (so it says in chalk on the top anyway) into an 82 240d auto chassis. Everything fits--the engine, the rear drive shaft bolts into the chassis and the transmission bolts in fine as well, but the front drive shaft barely hangs off the rear drive shaft threads when it's bolted to the flex disc. It doesn't plug in all the way like it did on the '80, and I don't think it's drivable like that. Kinda stumped, do I have to have some specialist lengthen my front drive shaft or am I missing something obvious? Thanks!

Yes! I stumped everyone!

Well Mike there isn't much to say on that one. I just put the 617 turbo in front of a four speed manual and in place of the 240D and I had to modify that shaft also. Can't get around it . You have a multiple of mix and match parts And somewhere you are missing a couple of inches on that drive shaft. It is not an expensive (big dollar) modification and any drive shaft shop can do it. They will most probably cut the shaft, then machine a piece of tubing to slip over your shaft very tightly and weld it up. The big job for you is to figure out exactly how much length you need to get well into the sliding spline. That has to be very correct, you want it into the spline as far as possible but you want at least a half to 3/4 inch free space. I have a couple of different lengths in my garage, might just luck out somewhere. Tell me how many inches long it needs to be.

The 80 240D and the 80 300D manual transmission should be the Iron Box with the bolt on Bell Housing. so that should be the same.

Did You happen to get the all aluminum one piece 4-spd by chance? that one was used in the 82 & 83 240D. not sure what the 81 had.
It could be the 300D had the one piece trans swaped in at some time.

I don`t know the lengths of the 2 trans. but found this measurement on another thread for the one piece. 16 3/4".

The 240D front section of the DL is 24" as per that thread.


I have both types of transmissions and a front piece of the DL. I can measure them tomarrow.

I don`t know the difference between the auto DL and the Manual DL front section length for the 240. the automatic is a longer transmission than the manual transmission. could be you used the wrong DL?

Charlie

Thanks for the info, guys! Good to hear it's not a big dollar modification, that's a relief. I'm pretty sure I read that for the 617 you need to shorten the shaft, I think maybe the auto shaft *might* work for that mod as it's shorter but don't quote me. The transmissions look the same, so I think I have the same type. I believe that the manual drive shaft that I'm using is 24". Huh. Well anyway, I'll try measuring my transmission and the drive shaft length it needs to be to fit and post. Still sorta mystified as to why though :confused:.
Thanks again.

I got 24" for the front driveshaft and 16.5" for the transmission. Thanks for the help :).