[Lesty]

I'm in the process of pulling the engine & transmission to do some rebuild work. However, I can not get the driveshaft to separate from the transmission which is the only thing preventing the engine/transmission from coming out.

I removed 5 of the 6 bolts that attach the driveshaft to the transmission flange. The sixth bolt stripped so I ended up cutting off the bolt head.

I assumed that there are through holes in the driveshaft flange which the bolts go through and then thread into the transmission flange.Is this true? Or is the remaining part of the stripped bolt preventing the driveshaft from separating?

I've tried many times to get the driveshaft to separate but it won't budge. Hammering, pry bars, etc....

Car is an 04 1.8T 4-motion. 5-speed transmission.

Picture of the driveshaft/transmission connection:

Picture of the remaining part of the bolt that I cut the head off of. You can see it sticking out of the driveshaft flange:

Thanks for the help. I feel like I must be missing something.

 

[Tomvw]

I haven't worked on an AWD Passat, but the shaft will need to slide back far enough to disengage the spline.
You might need to disconnect the rear end of the shaft.

 

[4zfed]

I just pulled out the rear diff and driveshaft from my 04 1.8T 4-motion with 5-speed transmission the other day and had similar problems but mine was the reverse. The drive shaft came off the back of the transmission but would not release from the diff. I ended up dropping the driveshaft with the diff by unbolting the center shaft bearing hanger from the car. I tried pulling on the driveshaft but only succeeded in starting to separate the joint at the diff so I stopped. I tried smacking with a hammer and prying too but there really wasn't anything to leverage against.

So my only suggestion is to try disconnecting the shaft at the differential end. If it does come apart, it may give you enough leverage to work it around and loosen the stuck connection. If not, pull the drive shaft along with the transmission. Good luck!

 

[Lesty]

I haven't worked on an AWD Passat, but the shaft will need to slide back far enough to disengage the spline.
You might need to disconnect the rear end of the shaft.

Thanks for the advice. Based on my understanding, I shouldn't have to disengage a spline to separate the driveshaft. I found this picture from a guy who was having similar trouble. No spline coming out the driveshaft:

I just pulled out the rear diff and driveshaft from my 04 1.8T 4-motion with 5-speed transmission the other day and had similar problems but mine was the reverse. The drive shaft came off the back of the transmission but would not release from the diff. I ended up dropping the driveshaft with the diff by unbolting the center shaft bearing hanger from the car. I tried pulling on the driveshaft but only succeeded in starting to separate the joint at the diff so I stopped. I tried smacking with a hammer and prying too but there really wasn't anything to leverage against.

So my only suggestion is to try disconnecting the shaft at the differential end. If it does come apart, it may give you enough leverage to work it around and loosen the stuck connection. If not, pull the drive shaft along with the transmission. Good luck!

I actually started to unbolt the driveshaft from the rear diff but I starting stripping one of the bolts again so I stopped :banghead: I'll try undoing the center support to see if that gives me more flexibility.

 

[Tomvw]

Looks like that remaining bolt might be the problem, can you remove it with vice-grips.

 

[PZ]

The center support will allow a lot more play in the driveshaft, so hopefully that solves the issue. I would also pull that bolt out either with vice-grips or a bolt-out tool (Sears has a great set). At the worst, remove that bolt, put the center support back in, then put the car back on the ground (chock wheels, set brake), put the car in reverse and let the clutch out a a bit until the flange spins loose of the driveshaft.