How to Remove Driveshaft 2003-07 Cadillac CTS

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In this video we're going to be working with our 2006 Cadillac CTS, 2.8 liter V6. We're going to be removing and re-installing the drive shaft assembly. You may need to replace this entire assembly or you may need to replace one of the several serviceable parts that are a part of the shaft. If you like this video, please hit subscribe. We have a ton more information on this vehicle as well as many other makes and models. If there are any parts you need, they're available from 1AAuto.com. Here are the items you'll need for this repair.

We're going to use a lift to make this easier to show you guys at home, but you should be able to do this in the driveway with a jack and jack stands. Locate the O2 sensor connector on the transmission. This is going to be on the left side of the tranny for the driver side O2 sensor and the right side for the passenger. This process is the same for either. Remove the safety on the connector, lift up, and release the electrical connector for the O2 sensor. Using a 22mm wrench, remove the O2 sensor from the exhaust. Disconnect the O2 sensor on the passenger side and remove it the same way as the other.

Remove these four 14mm bolts from the exhaust with a 14mm socket and ratchet. Separate the exhaust and allow it to hang. Remove these two 13mm bolts securing this cross brace under the exhaust. As you remove the last bolt, be sure to support the exhaust so it doesn't just fall. Push this down. Now that we've got it loosened up we can just move it out of the way, allow our exhaust to hang down a litter farther.

We have three rubber exhaust hangers here, got the muffler, we're going to spray some penetrating oil around of them to make them slide out of the rubber easier and then simply pull them over the ends and bring the exhaust down. Support the exhaust as you drop it out of the last hanger. Remove it from the vehicle.

We'll have to remove our entire drive shaft assembly from the vehicle. Before removing any component of the drive shaft, you want to be sure to index all aspects so that the shaft goes back in exactly the way it came out in correlation to the other parts because these are a balanced assembly. The way we'll do this by marking the drive shaft and the flange in two places just to be safe. We'll repeat these at the front of the drive shaft and the splines if we plan to separate the shaft.

Remove the drive shaft coupling to differential flange bolts, there's two here and one at the top. We'll have to rotate the drive shaft in order to access the one at the top of the vehicle. Using an 18mm socket and ratchet as well as a wrench, go ahead and remove the bolts. Get in and put the vehicle in neutral, and then rotate the drive shaft until you can access the last bolt. Put the vehicle in park.

Once the rear's been disconnected you can go on to remove the bolts from the transmission flange to the drive shaft coupling using an 18mm socket and ratchet. Again, we put the transmission in neutral and rotated the drive shaft so we could access this last bolt here.

We're going to take a small pry bar, wedge it between our coupling and our transmission flange and just pry that shaft back on the splines, as much as we can. It's a little harder to do with ours because the center support's blown out so it's flexing. Now we've got it starting to separate, so when we're going to remove our center support, it should be easier to remove our drive shaft.

Remove the two bolts on the center support bushing using a 15mm socket and ratchet. Be careful as your drive shaft is now disconnected, so you're going to have to support it as you remove the last bolt.

We've supported our drive shaft right at the center bushing with a screw jack. If you're doing this at home, on the ground, you can do this with a jack stand or a jack. Once that's supported, I'm going to use a bigger pry bar to try to separate the front portion of our drive shaft from the transmission. Repeat this step to separate the rear drive shaft from the differential. Once you've separated the coupling, we're going to remove our support. Remove our drive shaft from the vehicle.

Reinstall the rear section of the drive shaft first. Be sure that your bolt holes are aligned and that the flange is aligned before bolting it down. You will have to pull out on the front yoke of the drive shaft in order to get it to seat onto the pin at the front. Start the two bolts on your center support bearing. Only do these by hand as we may still have to adjust and line up the flange on the drive shaft and the differential.

Find our alignment mark that we made before we removed the drive shaft, line up these holes. We'll repeat this process in the back, rotating the differential to make our alignment, as not to risk dislodging the front.

Now we'll clean the thread-locker off of all the remaining hardware and reinstall. Remove all of the old thread-locker with some brake cleaner and a wire brush. This will ensure that our new thread-locker sets in properly and that our torque specs are correct because our threads are free of dirt and debris.

Start you hardware into the differential, be sure that the bolts face in, with the nuts on the differential side. Now we'll put our transmission in neutral, so apply a couple drops of thread-locker before we tighten down each bolt. Remember our transmission is in neutral now, so we can rotate these around and tighten them quickly before the thread-locker cures. Rotate around, tightening these with an 18mm socket, ratchet and wrench. Be sure you're watching that the beveled ends seat fully into the flange before torquing the nut. The torque spec is 63 foot-pounds. Repeat these steps on the remaining two bolts.

Reinstall the three bolts for the transmission flange, we're going to want to go with the bolts from the transmission, coming out through the coupling. Again we're going to apply a few drops of thread-locker, tighten them down with this 18mm socket, ratchet and wrench. Torque to 63 foot- pounds. Repeat these steps for the remaining two bolts.

Tighten up these two bolts with a 15mm socket and ratchet. You'll see a discoloration from where it used to line up. Make sure that you align it to those marks, so that we know that this center bearing is in straight and won't cause any binding or vibrations. Torque these bolts to 37 foot-pounds.

We'll hook these three points into the rubber mounts, up here under the car. Lift on the exhaust once the rear two hangers are in place. Slide the center bracket in and hook it in. Start the bolt by hand. Now it's supported and easier to install our last exhaust hanger.

Tighten up your two 13mm bolts on the center support. This is not a machine surface or a seal of any type, so you just have to get them tight. We just recently replaced our catalytic converters, so there's no need for us to replace our exhaust gaskets. If yours need to be changed, you can pry them off with a flat blade screwdriver or you may have to break them off with a chisel. Install the new one, then we'll line up our pipes, and reinstall our four 14mm bolts. Tighten up all your bolts, and make sure that they seat onto the exhaust gaskets evenly.

Torque these bolts to 16 foot-pounds. Reinstall the O2 sensors into the bungs. Use an oxygen sensor socket, torque the O2 sensors to 40 foot-pounds.

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How to Remove Driveshaft 2003-07 Cadillac CTS

step 1 :Removing the Exhaust

step 2 :Removing the Driveshaft

step 3 :Installing the Driveshaft

step 4 :Installing the Exhaust

Tools needed

Grinding Whirring Noise from Manual Transmission Why You Need to Check Manual Transmission Fluid

How to Remove Driveshaft 2003-07 Cadillac CTS

step 1 :Removing the Exhaust 0:52

step 2 :Removing the Driveshaft 3:13

step 3 :Installing the Driveshaft 6:52

step 4 :Installing the Exhaust 10:37

Tools needed

Grinding Whirring Noise from Manual Transmission Why You Need to Check Manual Transmission Fluid

step 1 :Removing the Exhaust

step 2 :Removing the Driveshaft

step 3 :Installing the Driveshaft

step 4 :Installing the Exhaust