jadidaskv

so the passenger side axle separated at the inner joint, and housing/supporting bracket it runs through bolted to the oil pan broke right off. 3 of the 4 bolts are still in the oil pan, the one on the top toward the rear of the car broke off with the axle housing/supporting bracket. the whole bracket is spinning. the car is on the side of the road about 3miles from my house. can i take the axle completely out and drive it home?

or take the front driveshaft off and drive it home with or without the drive axle in throught the oil pan and TC, but removed from the knuckle since thats the part thats flopping around and the part through the oil pan into the TC is straight since the cv joint is separated?

jadidaskv

any advice? i took the broke axle and front driveshaft out today, its still parked where it broke down. i just wanted to make sure it would be safe to drive home, about 3miles, or at least not cause more problems gettin towed with the broken axle spinning.

ive read a few of the e9x guys pulling the front driveshafts and driving RWD for years without any problems. but they still had the axles in. i dont imagine it would make much of a difference not having the passenger side axle it but still having the driverside axle in. kinda just looking for some reassurance lol, or why it would cause damage if it would.

kd7iwp

I don't have a definitive answer but can try to pick my brain. Front diff is open, so all the torque will go to front passenger wheel. It can't spin super-fast or anything because the xDrive clutch pack is not a differential, so front drive shaft will continue to spin at the same speed as the rear (unless any of the transfer case gears are reduction gears, which I doubt). If it were my car and I wanted to get it home I would pull the front driveshaft if possible and drive it home, if not possible to do that, I'd try driving it home as-is without the axle. Sorry if that isn't a good idea, just my personal thoughts.

jadidaskv

ya that was my plan. to pull the front driveshaft as well as the broken axle and supporting bracket/bearing.

i already have them out, just wanted to make sure i wasnt going to mess anything up driving it home like that. which i didnt think it would, but just wanted some reassurance. like if too much fluid would leak out and cause problems, or ony having one axle in would screw up the trans or TC.

jadidaskv

thank you for your advice and replying

jadidaskv

so now this car has thrown 3 front right axles. 1 from DSS, one from International autoparts or autoparts international, and another from DSS since they warrantied it. the first one lasted 4-5 months, second one maybe 2 months, and the 3rd one 10mins. i figured something had to be wrong w the car so i replaced control arm bushing that had very little tearing, and a blown front shock.

putting everything back together i put everything in one piece ata time, the inner part of the axle in first, the smaller splined part through the hub, then since i was using a factory inner boot and had the axle in piecees, when i put the center shaft back into the inner joint, the rollers werent sitting into the inner joint all the way, barely any at all!! i had s jack under the control arm so i raised and lowered the wheel from relaxed, ride height, and all the way up so the car was jus starting to come off the jack stand. not at one point were the rollers in far enough to think it would be safe to drive, and at one point the roller were 3/4 of the way out/only 1/4 of the rollers were in the joint.

i measured the axle, as well as all the others i had, looked up specs, sure as $#!t, they're all too short. realoem says 1060mm which is 41 3/4, i had like 39. looking up other parts i found 39 9/16 compressed, and 36 3/8 compressed. napa "has" reman one and a new one. the reman is listed as 39 9/16, the new one 36 3/8. so i had them get me a reman one, i get it and its the shorter one. brought it back n showed them, they said maybe it was boxed wrong so they ordered 2 more, both the shorter one. i order one elsewhere from a differnt remanufacturer that said it was 39 9/16, had it overnighted n and everything. it gets here and its the shorter one. the story goes on with all kinds of phone calls and such, but nothing helpful so ill leave the boring details out.

has anyone else had this issue? has anyone else got an aftermarket one and had problems or had no problems?

audiophool

So what you're saying is that the inner "plunge" joint has the spider rollers riding at the outer range of travel due to the assembly being too short? I'm assuming in this case the part that's short is the part between CV joints.

I recall from doing my front shocks recently that I had to pull the hub wayyyyyy out before the spider became disengaged from the inner joint (no, this didn't damage anything). Do you have a picture of what happened to the latest axle?

Oh, and what tool are you using to pull the splined axle end into the hub? I bought this from ECS:

jadidaskv

ya exactly. i think the rollers are even further out than the outer riding range. at some heights (jacking up the wheel) the rollers stick out more than they set in. i imagine its because the shaft between the joints is too short. and this is while everything is together. not even pulling the strut outwards.

i didnt use any tool to pull the splines thru the hub. i lightly greased the spines and thr threads came through enough to get the nut on then torque it down.

im not sure if i have any pics. think i may have deleted them, but everytime its come apart, the rollers come out of the inner plunge joint.

audiophool

That doesn't seem right at all.

For the outer spline into the bearing, the video I linked shows the puller dragging the shaft through the hub. I was putting about 20 ft-lb on the large nut the whole way in. No way I could have pulled the axle in without that tool. Note on the axle nut: supposed to be 310 ft-lb with dry threads but oil on the face of the nut.

kd7iwp

I’m going to be removing my axle shaft in a week to take my turbos out. Are you saying there’s no way I can do it without that tool? Was reading the Pelican article and they suggested a puller for removing the shaft if you can’t get it out with a sharp blow to the splined shaft, but they didn’t point anything out for bringing it back in. If you were putting 20 ft/lb on that nut of the puller the whole way, why not just put the 20 ft/lbs on the actual axle nut? Or grease the shaft and nut while pulling it in, clean off with solvent, then put the nut back on again and tighten?