2G Driver's CV axle coming off of intermediate shaft

[kjlinwi]

Had the car for about six years. Almost everything was rebuilt replace the first two years. Car makes over 400 hp and 380 ftlbs on the dyno.

Transfer case was not rebuilt during the initial rebuild and started making noise. Pulled transfer case out and rebuilt it, at that time the driver's CV axle was also replaced with a reman due to grease leakage from the boot. After repair, car drove fine for a couple of weeks. Wife is the main driver of the car. While driving, she lost acceleration and limped the car back home. Driver's CV axle had pulled off of the intermediate shaft.

Ordered a new shaft for it, compared new shaft to pulled off shaft and it was almost an inch shorter. Original shaft is gone (had a core charge on it). Ordered several new shafts, different sources and lengths vary on all of them (measured in the fully compressed position). Found that O'reillys has a spec on their CV joints of 22 inches. Ordered a shaft from them and it measures 22inches and is anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4" longer than all the other shafts. Installed shaft and test drove.

When driving it gentle, it was fine. Romp it and run it and immediately could hear/feel knocking from the left front and the axle pulled off intermediate shaft in a block or so. Intermediate shaft splines and lock ring look fine. Intermediate shaft is installed in car with working a/c and bolted correctly to bracket. Engine/ trans mounts are good and tight, can't budge them with a prybar. Control arm bushings and ball joints are good, no movement when prying either. Once the CV axle is off of the intermediate shaft. There appears to be only about a half an inch of overlap between shaft and axle when car is in the raised position. Car sits at stock ride height.

I keep coming back to the axle has to be too short but it is the longest of all of the options. Wondering if anyone else has seen this and/or knows for certain what the CV axle length is supposed to be. I don't think that there should be anyway possible that the axle can come completely off the intermediate shaft while driving.

 

[Dusty Landrum]

Had the car for about six years. Almost everything was rebuilt replace the first two years. Car makes over 400 hp and 380 ftlbs on the dyno.

Transfer case was not rebuilt during the initial rebuild and started making noise. Pulled transfer case out and rebuilt it, at that time the driver's CV axle was also replaced with a reman due to grease leakage from the boot. After repair, car drove fine for a couple of weeks. Wife is the main driver of the car. While driving, she lost acceleration and limped the car back home. Driver's CV axle had pulled off of the intermediate shaft.

Ordered a new shaft for it, compared new shaft to pulled off shaft and it was almost an inch shorter. Original shaft is gone (had a core charge on it). Ordered several new shafts, different sources and lengths vary on all of them (measured in the fully compressed position). Found that O'reillys has a spec on their CV joints of 22 inches. Ordered a shaft from them and it measures 22inches and is anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4" longer than all the other shafts. Installed shaft and test drove.

When driving it gentle, it was fine. Romp it and run it and immediately could hear/feel knocking from the left front and the axle pulled off intermediate shaft in a block or so. Intermediate shaft splines and lock ring look fine. Intermediate shaft is installed in car with working a/c and bolted correctly to bracket. Engine/ trans mounts are good and tight, can't budge them with a prybar. Control arm bushings and ball joints are good, no movement when prying either. Once the CV axle is off of the intermediate shaft. There appears to be only about a half an inch of overlap between shaft and axle when car is in the raised position. Car sits at stock ride height.

I keep coming back to the axle has to be too short but it is the longest of all of the options. Wondering if anyone else has seen this and/or knows for certain what the CV axle length is supposed to be. I don't think that there should be anyway possible that the axle can come completely off the intermediate shaft while driving.

Not sure if you got it figured out or not, but when I get home tonight I will measure the oem outter and inner axle shafts and get back to you.

 

[kjlinwi]

Not sure if you got it figured out or not, but when I get home tonight I will measure the oem outter and inner axle shafts and get back to you.

Thanks,

 

[Dusty Landrum]

Alright, got everything measured up.

Looks like the inner half shaft is 16.5”

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And the outter axle is 22.5”

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Hope this helps dude.

 

[kjlinwi]

Thanks, it helped to verify that the 22" shaft is correct length. I did finally figure out what was wrong. The plug on the inside of the inner tripoid joint was out of position. It was too far out which was stopping the joint from sliding all the way over the retaining ring. When you installed the CV axle on the intermediate shaft, you could feel the axle bottom out leading you to believe it was on all the way. The plug was not letting it seat over the retaining ring. After measuring everything with a digital mic, I ended up using a socket and driving the plug about .125" further into the joint and it has behaved perfectly after that. Thanks for taking the time to measure everything for me. It helped to verify where I needed to measure and repair.

 

[Dusty Landrum]

Thanks, it helped to verify that the 22" shaft is correct length. I did finally figure out what was wrong. The plug on the inside of the inner tripoid joint was out of position. It was too far out which was stopping the joint from sliding all the way over the retaining ring. When you installed the CV axle on the intermediate shaft, you could feel the axle bottom out leading you to believe it was on all the way. The plug was not letting it seat over the retaining ring. After measuring everything with a digital mic, I ended up using a socket and driving the plug about .125" further into the joint and it has behaved perfectly after that. Thanks for taking the time to measure everything for me. It helped to verify where I needed to measure and repair.

Heck yeah man! Glad you got it sorted out and always here to help.