My car is an original 1992 5spd. After blowing up TWO W58s I went to SOARER R154. I had a local shop who works on a TON of SCs do the work mainly because I just didn't have the time and needed the car going quickly....

I was told there was some issue with finding the front half of the driveshaft, but then it was somehow resolved.

I had the car on the lift today at a friends while we were redoing the intercooler pipes and some other much needed maintenance....including the rear seal on the trans, which was leaking. That is when I noticed that the "cup" for lack of better words that surrounds the driveshaft when it is mated to the trans was cut, pretty much where you see the line drawn. The driveshaft is also ALL the way into the trans which I was told was a problem since it is supposed to slide there.

I didn't get much of a straight answer out of the guys that swapped the R154, but much to their defense it was a while (and alot of cars) ago and the car had to get on the road. They are good people...I could bring the car over there but the car isn't drivable at the moment and I was wondering what other SC owners experience is....

When shifting under power the whole rear end of the car clunks something nasty. I figured it was the diff mounts and as such, have a set of solid mounts ready to put in. Now I'm not so sure.....

Any ideas?

 

Ok so wait. What front driveshaft is currently on the car? The w58 ds or the r154 front ds? That "cup" (<--i dunno what its call either ) was probably cut to slip in the yolk of the ds as the w58 ds is a tad longer than the soarer r154 ds and it was probably hitting the "cup". This is my assumption. As far as the clunking, as long as the driveshaft is straight and seated properly into the trans input shaft fully, you should be ok. From what i understand, the "cup" is more of a guide to keep the driveshaft in place and from moving around. I suspect you should be ok due to the fact that half of the "cup is left and it should be sufficient to keep the DS in place and from moving around. BUT if the ds is too short and not in all the way (<--no homo) then i would assume that unwanted movement, clunking, vibrations are definantly neccecary. I suspect that the u-joint of the front of the ds is exposed too much along with the combination of the ds not being the proper length causing the clunking. Bottom line, find out what front ds you are using, it should be the r154 front ds, not the w58, even if it could me made to "work". I suggest you get a buddy to go through the gears on the car while its on the lift while you stand underneath (safe distance of course) and see how the driveshaft spins. I would take a look at the diff also. Good luck man, im also running the soarer r154 after wearing out my w58.

 

Check the sig.

The front half propeller shaft that needs to be run with the R154 in the SC is a tad shorter than the stock W58 propeller shaft. If they used the factory SC front half propeller shaft, it may cause binding in both joints. I have ZERO binding with my Supra MK3 front half.

What DIFF are you running? I recently swapped in a Supra Auto TT Torsen and get a bit of clunking. It could be your mounts also.

 

Shern,

I've looked at your swap thread adn was going to use it when going R154, it just happened to pop at a bad time for me. When looking at the front half of the drive shaft, it is thicker, like the MK3 (or soarer) R154 piece.

I am running an Aristo TT diff and I am changing the diff mounts although they looked OK.

Does your mk3 driveshaft sit ALL the way in the trans?

 

I had the same issue with my dustsheild and the front yolk. My dustsheild got bent from the previous owner and it was scraping against the yolk making the worst noise ever, I ended up removing the sheild from the transmission. My guess is that the soarer front yolk is smaller in diamater compared to the supra.
Btw the supra driveshaft is a little longer when compared to the soarer driveshaft, not long enough to cause problems though.

 

I wonder what supra your referring to? when I did my 1j/r154 swap I used the mk3 front half driveshaft which is shorter than the SC front half (w58). I'm still running on that shaft but If I wanted it perfect I would lengthen it about 3/4inch or so. If you use a soarer driveshaft it should be perfect. check your rubber donut on the diff see if they used shims there and longer bolts, or maybe shims where the front half and rear half of the driveshafts meet.

 

Cutting that dust shield shouldn't matter too much really at all.

You could have a local driveshaft shop retube just the front section of the driveshaft and rebalance once you take the correct measurement. Maybe $75-125

 

Frankly, I am not worried about the little shield, more so the length of the driveshaft and possible binging in the joints. It's been ok for probably 20+ passes down the track and a good bit of street abuse. LOL