Got woken up by my brother this morning after I'd been up till 4AM talking on the phone to a girl I know (think she might like me). Anyway I didn't have to work till midday, but as usual Miles leaves it till the last possible minute to decide he needs a lift to school and so I get up semi concious with about 2 minutes to locate pants shoes and carkeys and drive him in.

I get to about camperdown on our way to Newtown when I get the first sign that there are gnomes at work. As I moved to enter a roundabout, there was a series of quite firm thumps from the transmission tunnel, like a gnome with a rubber hammer trying to tunnel into the cabin from underneath. As I accelerated through a left turn at the next set of lights, he got even more enthusiastic. I could feel the vibration through my seat.

By the time I dropped miles at school the thumping was getting worse, I could smell burning rubber and the sound was becoming more metalic. Within a few blocks more gnomes joined in, so the intermittent thumping became a constant vibration. Not the good rastaman kind, more a my driveline is falling out kind. I pulled over the next chance I had. The rubber block on the centre support was hanging loose, but still sorta holding things in place. I don't have towing insurance at the moment, so I drove it back to my place crossing my fingers that nothing siezed on the way.

Those gnomes had been busy. When I got it home and had a proper look, I discovered that not only is the bushing partially dislodged, but the crossmember itself appears to be warped. I rang up to order a new bearing and bushing, and was told that I'd need to actually take it out before ordering as there are several different sizes and they have no listing to match with VIN on that particular part.

Does anyone have any tips and tricks for pulling the inboard half of the driveshaft out? I'm feeling kind of enthusiastic since I haven't had a decent job to do on the brick since I did the brakes early this year. I just wish I had my creeper here in Sydney because I'm forseeing a weekend on my back.

No one else I know has ever managed to warp the center support crossmember before (and I could be imagining it, but it does look quite skewed). I do know one guy who managed to break a 245 driveshaft doing burnouts though.

Also is there some kind of gnome repelant I can spray under the car so they don't break anything else?
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A smart bomb. The bomb teaches Shakespearean sonnets, ancient cuneiform, relativity, and the Tibetan language. It may know other things. It has no tolerance for rudeness, so ask nicely.