204S2K

I just bought a jdm AP1 and the owner has replaced 2 transmissions and clutches 3 times within 20k. he believes the driveshaft is blown and i suspect it is because the other night i was driving i heard a big clunk and when i looked underneith the drive shaft 3 of the 6 bolts holding on to the output shaft broke off and the other 3 bolts were loose, same with the rear bolts to the diff were loose aswell, i noticed there is grease sprayed all over from end to end around the transmission tunnel. is it possible a blown drive shaft could cause this issue? any input would be greatly appreciated.

B serious

What type of trans/clutch failure was he experiencing?

Maybe the repeated installs caused him to:
-Hastily do the last reinstall
-Where he neglected to tighten or place all the bolts
-In order to offload it onto you

More details like...type of replacement clutch will also help.

Your question is vague at the moment.

204S2K

sorry about that. what he metioned was the clutch kept burning out i assume. he was using oem clutches and the 3rd clutch is a compititon stage 2 clutch. he replaced the transmission 2 times all around 20k's of each other and he advised me to probably replace the drive shaft since he thinks its blown. He did race the car a couple of times too so maybe that took a beating on the drivetrain. what im mostly asking is will a blown drive shaft cause that much damage to a transmission and clutch? its hard to think it can but if someone might know another reason that would be great.

B serious

Maybe the driveshaft was damaged during a ham-fisted install.

Maybe he just "forgot" to torque all the driveshaft bolts and they fell out.

Maybe he's using the driveshaft as a scapegoat for some other inexplicable issues.

A worn driveshaft can damage trans output shaft bearings possibly. But it would also damage the diff.

I can't see why it would cause a clutch to wear prematurely.

No clue what was wrong with the transes he replaced. Maybe he drove like shit.

I would just replace what's bad and start fresh. He may have just been doing the install like a dummy, doing the preload adjustments like a dummy, or driving like a dummy.

One way or the other...the issues he was having were likely his reason for moving on.

If it was as easy as just replacing the driveshaft...then why TF would he not do it? According to your observation, the old one was almost ready to uninstall itself. So almost half the work was done for him.

Start fresh. Make sure its all set up correctly.

I doubt the driveshaft was the cause of his issues. The driveshaft damage or neglect was more likely CAUSED by whatever he was doing.

Car Analogy

Clutches go bad because people use crap aftermarket clutch disks that only last like 20k miles, or because they are bad drivers.

I suspect both. He worn out the clutch way early from not knowing how to drive stick. Then he didn't use an oem clutch disk each time.

Propshaft can go bad, but when it does, it doesn't cause its boots to loosen. Not torquing them does cause that.

Compounding his bad driving, he did bad service.

204S2K

thanks for the input guys i really think it was half assed installs because i noticed a couple parts werent tightened properly. ill take off the drive shaft tmr and see if it really needs replacing.

Car Analogy

That it sprayed lube off the propshaft may mean the cv joints have leaked. Someone did a good diy on disassembling, cleaning, and repacking the cvs with grease. It also included where to find new cv boots (there is a metal collar along with the rubber boot, so its not easy to find).

I would do that service since you already have things apart.

Also, I am working with a vendor to try and setup a rebuild service for the cv's (for the propshaft. Not for the axle driveshafts, though I will persue that too if the propshaft thing works out).

To get this started I need a set of rebuildable propshaft cv's, so they can do a core swap setup. Otherwise your car is down until the rebuilt parts come back, and that woukd suck.

Check your propshaft cv's for excessive play.