axle popped out

[darpien]

Well I was driving along down route 50 at about 75 and all of a sudden I feel a weird vibration and the car just seems to be accelerating with no change in speed well i pull over and think to myself "WTF"? So I sit there and wait for a tow truck and when he gets the front of the car in the air I see a huge puddle of oil on the ground and then I see tranny fluid leaking out and at this point I wasn't exactly sure what it was but after a while of thinking I came to one conclusion it was the axle. I got it back to my dads house and looked at it and the passenger side axle popped out of the transmission. I tried to push it back in but had no luck it is still about a half and inch out of the tranny and I was just wondering if anyone has had this problem before and how they fixed it so it won't pop out.

[detroitred]

AXLE POPPED OUT

I would recommend that you remove the front brake and hub and all the hub links. Then pull out the shaft to see if the circlip is on the trans end of the shaft. If not, then fish it out of the transaxle. Be careful to not damage the axle seal on the trans. If the circlip is still on or not, you should replace the circlip with a new one.

Whatever you do, DO NOT REMOVE the other half axle while the other one is out as that move will collapse the four-side gearing that accepts the axle spline. Then nothing will stay in the transmission. The only way to fix that is to remove the entire trans, and tear it apart just to resent those four gears. And then find a junk half shaft that you can place in the trans after you reset the spider gears or they may collapse while you are re-assembling the trans. Believe me, it is not something you want to do.

So ensure that there is a spider gear mate in place in the trans to receive the spline of the half-shaft. if it is not there, you will have to do what I described above. Get a shop manual if you plan to do it yourself.

If the trans gears are in place, put the new circlip on that end of the shaft, lube it with some grease, and ease it into the trans gears. Once you are lined up, push (with good pressure) the half shaft in the rest of the way. This may take a few attempts, but you will feel it once it is in the proper position and you not be able to just pull it out.
Then reconnect the hub and its links and the front brake, then tighten the large hub nut.
Good luck Darpien.[/b]

[Guest]

Yeah, I had this happen at high speed and it wasn't good. The last time, the end of the spline that's on the outside of the circlip twisted just enough for it to not match the rest of the spline. I was having this problem on a regular basis. I don't know what caused it. But after replacing the circlip twice and 2 rebuilt c/v s later and I'd had enough.. We took the inner joint apart and removed the circlip that holds the cradle on the spline.. we then moved it to about 3/8" over the length of the spline and tigged it to the shaft.. rebuilt the joint and it has never come out since..

[darpien]

so you moved the inner part of the axle 3/8" out of the joint?

[Guest]

The spline on the shaft that holds the inner joint on. There's alot of play before it hit's the circlip that keeps it from sliding off. We removed the clip, slid it until it was 3/8" over the edge.. then.. tigged them together.. Seriously hard driving. Even on hard bumpsteers corners. (Where it usually popped out) No problems or leaks..

[Champ 98]

Awesome replys guys! ...We had this happen on our racers numerous times and couldn't figure a fix ...now we have one ...

[Guest]

Yeah it collapses the c/v boot a little, but not enough to worry about.