Front drive axle "fell out"

F

Frankiago

Evo Troll
Premium
Location
IL
I made it home, and there's a series of 3 speed bumps before reaching my parking space. After the third bump I heard a clunk, and as I get to the parking spot I hear a horrible clankity ... almost grind with some thud mixed in the middle. I threw it in park and immediately leaped out to inspect. What do I find? Looks like the left front (driver's side front) drive axel unlinked itself, I couldn't find the bolts that hold it in around the perimeter...

Maybe they snapped off and fell, I'll go look for them in a bit.
 
lol no, AWD. The front axle is a drive axle. I went back and looked just now...

I looked all over the parking lot and I came up with 2 bolts, look like they have star / torx heads and when I looked back at the connections for this drive axle, I was excited at first. Turns out it's a total of 4 bolts, 2 within a half inch of eachother on either side... so I'm missing 2 of the bolts and whatever nuts go on there. I'm pretty sure nuts belong on there and it doesn't just directly thread into the housing.

At any rate, I will get a temporary fix by going to Lowe's or Home Depot with these 2 bolts. I will order the proper nuts and bolts (8 of them) for both sides and replace all of them. Ever since the engine swap ordeal, nothing's been completely "there."

In fact, I'm replacing most of my exhaust bolts, nuts and gaskets for the same reason, and I'll get around to various engine bay bolts when I can.
 
To be more specific, it's the inner CV joint on the left front that unbolted itself. I still have no idea how it happened as I don't know how many bolts were put on there during the re-install.
 
Everything remained intact. It was only off for approximately 25 feet of driving at <5 mph (luckily).

I will re-bolt it up after getting some necessary hardware and do some test-driving on it around the block and make decisions from there. I still don't know how it happened (well I know the speed bump did it... but I don't know why the bolts fell out).

I have yet to find the nuts, just 2, like stated earlier, torx-head bolts? It kinda looked odd seeing them as I'm used to seeing 10-14mm bolts all over this car, but aside from springs I haven't looked at anything suspension/drivetrain related.

My exhaust, specifically from headers to Y-pipe connections are all suspect, so I spent $30 on OEM nuts ($2.64 per nut!!!) and another $40 or so in OEM exhaust gaskets to replace at all of these connections.
 
How's the other side? Same type of torx bolts? The RWDs I see regular nuts and bolts.
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Anybody have a how-to on replacing the CV joint boot? I have no idea what tool is used to get the clamp off. It's a C-clamp that almost seems like I'd have to cut it off... if that's the case then I can give that a go and order 1 more new boot assembly (only $30)...

Edit: nevermind, I just ordered a new boot assembly with clamps, so I'm just gonna destroy this one taking it off. They still haven't shipped my order of shaft+bolts b/c they're STILL waiting on the bolts, SOOO I'm going to just cut the clamps off and remove the boot so I can get this thing outta there and have a drivable car again.
 
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the axle bolts should have loc-tite on them, when they did the swap they probably didn't use locktite, also, they should be grade 8 bolts with high shear strength...
 
The lock nut that holds the axle to the hub is rather large. I do not have a deep socket to accommodate this huge nut... sooo I got pretty far in removing the axle, this nut is the only thing holding it on, and now I give up and I'll be driving it very slowly to a wheel alignment / axle shop and have them remove it...
 
Anybody know off-hand if I were to remove a drive axle, would the shaft entering the diff fall out?

I don't know exactly what would be holding it on, it's part # 38231Y pictured (towards the lower right side)... doesn't look like it's bolted in, just basically pushed in on that side and the 6 bolts and pressure from the drive axle is keeping the shaft inserted into the diff... don't know if driving and vibrations would eventually send this sucker flying out?

I'm getting a tow b/c I don't have the tools to remove the axle myself, didn't think of the rest of the shaft that's going into the diff until now.

View attachment 132100
 
They wouldn't touch it b/c the drive axle locks the wheel bearings in place... they said the wheel bearings would be destroyed before I got home if I drove it like that...

$60 tow there, $60 tow back, nothing but wasted time to show for it... pretty shitty.
 
yeah, they would have had to seperate the outer cv joint from the axle & then put the outer cv joint back in to keep the bearing togeather... they couldn't figure that out? the outer cv joint connects to the shaft with another locking clip like the inner, sometimes they need to be released with a special cv joint clip pliers though...

sucks man...
 
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