Evening All
Further to my post a few days ago about my attempts at changing Mark II Mondeo shock absorbers, I am now truly in a world of pain.
This weekend I changed the Driver's side shock absorber and coil spring. Shockingly, this spring also proved to be broken when I withdrew it from the car (again, the break was rusty - but it had sheared right at the top, so impossible to see, and the MOT tester missed it). The car passed, incidentally.
However, today's episode involved the use of a 'Hub Puller' which basically screws onto the threads of the studs, and allowed me to extract the knuckle and shock absorber as a complete assembly from the driveshaft. Unfortunately, in my infinite wisdom, I didn't quite manage to remember to disconnect the lower suspension arm (wishbone) balljoint first. Oh dear.
So there I am, happily driving the bolt of my nice new Hub Puller home. By the time I realised, it was too late - I had already forced the driveshaft in, rather than pulling the hub out. Ouch. I didn't think too much more about it until I reassembled everything with the new shock and spring, and took the car for a test drive.
'Whumpa, Whumpa, Whumpa' noise - increasing with road speed. I wanted to cry... The noise happens under load - and disappears when I come off the power. The more power that is applied, the louder the noise gets. Vibration is apparent through the steering and the pedals of the car - in fact it feels very disconcerting, although I'm sure it's not actually particularly dangerous.
:o(
So I *think* that I have damaged one or both of the CV joints on the O/S driveshaft (by driving the shaft into it inadvertantly, with the hub puller). My question is: Is this likely? I noticed that there was a fair amount of rotational slack in the driveshaft, and when I apply the handbrake and engage / release the clutch in gear, there is an audible 'clunk' from under the car, right from the area I was working on...
My money is on the O/S inner CV joint being shafted. Is this a difficult job? If my diagnosis is right, do I have to buy the CV joint separately, or can I just pay for a whole new driveshaft, and fit this as an assembly (including both the inner and outer CV joint, to same me some time and even more heartache?) If I can't buy the whole assembly, would it be wise to replace both CV joints on that side (inner and outer)
Any advice would be welcomed - I really don't want to waste any more weekends on this damn heap! Incidentally, this is a 1997 2.0 Ghia X.
Best,
Alan