Driveshafts in a swap is a simple but necessary part that can come in MANY different forms. There are various styles of drive shaft joints, sizes, yokes, flanges, adapters. Below Is a quick overview of common parts
- U joint
- Slip Yoke
- Fixed Yoke
- Guibo Joint
- Companion Flange
- Single Piece Fixed Driveshaft
- Steel Slip single piece driveshaft
- Aluminum Slip driveshaft
Typical driveshaft types used in e9x swaps are as follows
- Modified stock drive shaft: Keep the factory shaft and simply adapt the front section to match the new transmission. This can be difficult to find a shop that will modify the front section of the BMW driveshaft since they don't have a good way to balance it.
- Single piece fixed drive shaft: This shaft will be used in transmissions with a slip yoke. Since there is slip at the transmission the shaft can be a fixed length. These are available in steel, aluminum, carbon fiber.
- Single piece slip driveshaft: This shaft will be used in applications that have a fixed transmission yoke (tr6060, cts-v t56) Since there is no slip at the transmission there must be slip in the shaft to allow installation and movement.
Drive Line Angle
Driveline angle in a single piece driveshaft with u joints is important to keep vibration down. Shimming of the transmission up may be required on your application.
Driveshaft Source
Driveshafts can be sourced from many different suppliers. I always recommend using a local driveline shop if available. Check or ask local hotrod shops or 4x4 shops who they use. If you cannot find a local shop, custom driveshafts are available on big parts suppliers like Summit racing, Drive shaft shop, Strange Engineering, dennys drive shaft, Fabbot and many more.