I was changing the shocks. I failed to support the hub properly. I started putting in the finished passenger side strut and the axle seems extended with the boot stretched at the engine mounted bearing. It's too dark to work so tomorrow I plan to detach the control arm and punch the spline axle out of the hub then try to work it around until it finds its home in the bearing. I was wondering if it might be a better approach to start the engine and put it in reverse and hope to catch the spline for the bearing. I welcome suggestions. Thanks.
Bill wrote in news:1190509205.539207.318910 @y42g2000hsy.googlegroups.com:
You have pulled apart the inner CV joint.It is a sliding joint and can be pulled apart quite easy (as you have found out). The proper way to repair this is to remove the shaft completely and reasemble it on the bench. You can't just try to push it back together. THere are ball bearings that have fallen out of their races that have to be re-inserted properly.
A few tips about drawing out the half shaft.
1) drain about a quart of trany fluid to get the fluid level below the shaft opening.
2) You are gonna need a big pry bar to pop the shaft loose from the engine. My book says to use a big screwdriver. HA! I needed a three foot crow bar.
3) Be carefull that you don't dammage the rubber seal when you draw out the shaft. Don't drag the splines on it.
4) Don't move anything while the shaft is out. The pinnion gear that engages the splined end of the half shaft is just hanging in the teeth of the differential gears. Move anything in the tranny and the pinnon drops into the tranny. Or it gets mis-alligned and you can't reinsert the shaft.
5) When re-inserting the shaft use a bit of grease on the splines and tranny fluid on the seal area to make things go together easy.
PS: Don't ya just hate it when things like this happen.
With respect to the inner joint, don't these have a ring that prevents the tripod bearings from coming out completely? Most of the ones i have seen have this. The joint can extend alot before it actually comes out of its place. In the past, the only thing I needed was to raise the outer half shaft and push it in, no need to disassemble.
With respect to the tranny gears, I have not seen a design such as this in which things can just fall into the tranny. I have seen a few in which two gears are rotated together by the shaft and it may require rotating the shaft while introducing it, to align both gear's splines.
AS wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
MAybe. When I replaced the HAlf Shaft on my Altima I was bombarded with warnings about not pulling the inner bearing apart.
Perhaps I was being too parinoid. My Nissan 310 had warnings about the pinnion falling into the tranny while the half shaft was out. I just natrally extrapolated that to my Altima.
Don't try this at home, but...what worked is this: I could only get one bolt into the lower strut. The upper bolt would go as the axle was extended since it had come apart in the bearing attached to the engine. Putting support under the hub so the axle was level with the bearing and with the other side of the car on a jackstand as well, I put the car first in forward then in reverse. While in reverse the errant hub was spinning. Putting on the brakes I heard a loud Wham! the axle popped back in when I put on the brakes. From there all when well.
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