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Inner CV Joint Alignment

J

jibbajibba56

CEG'er
Joined
Apr 21, 2010
Messages
35
Location
Texas
Looking for some experienced advice. Did the front suspension without unbolting the hubs. Needless to say I am pretty sure I over extended the inner CVs. I think I have them back in place without taking the boot off (I pushed straight back in as soon as I felt extension, inspected boots and no tears). Couple of questions on that thought:

1. How hard is it to line these tripod joints backup without removing the boots?

2. Any simple checks to make sure I have them back in correctly? I have been driving it for 2 days and don't hear or feel anything unusual (although it pulls a bit to the right now). I was thinking of putting the front end up in the air and with the transmission in gear and having a friend spin one hub while I watch the other side hub and boot and feel it out for play.

If it is recommended to remove and replace boots I will just get new half shafts as these are the originals at 134k miles and the price difference between a set of inner boots and a set of half shafts isn't all the much.

I did a search and found a couple of threads that mentioned it briefly. I am looking to take my 00 CSVT on a 1800 mile trip over the long weekend.

Thanks.
 
When you say "did the front suspension" what do you mean? If you did any work on the front or replaced a part then you need to have an alignment done. That may be why the car doesn't steer straight.
 
Right, I have scheduled an alignment for next week. They couldn't get me in yesterday. Seems everyone is getting geared up for the 4th. I had all 4 tires replaced about a month ago. this past weekend I did struts, strut bearings, strut bushings, both lower control arms, and the anti-sway linkages. Less buickee more contouree now. Main concern was the inner cv joint as it did extend but I put it right back in it seems. senior members @ fordcontour has posted on more than one occasion that you are basically screwed if the inner joint slides out in the boot but I don't see how if you take your time to line things. Mine slid right back in there.
 
OK if you're driving it and no noises. Any damage would be torn boot even in the slightest and it will spit grease pretty quickly to tell you. If no grease streak in line with boot then most likely OK. Depends on how much force pulled out against boot as to whether cut inside to fail later. I'd say go for it though if no leaks now.

In old days they installed a big circlip to keep tripod from coming all the way out, some brilliant person realized they could leave the clips out and save Ford $50K a year. I bet that was a big bonus check there..............

Tripod can come out all day long if boot not cut doing it. Easy to get back in too.
 
The Ford inboard CV joint looks a lot like this, but minus 1/2 a pound of grease.
tripodjoint.jpg


If you pull the tripod out and it goes back in nicely and doesn't tear the boot, you're fine, wipe your brow and treat yourself to an extra post repair beer.

Worst case scenario is when the tripod is out of the housing, it gets really heavily jostled and one of the rollers falls off, which then distributes a whole bunch of the little needle bearings all over inside the joint. If this happens, you'll know it before you reach the end of the driveway.
 
gmorrell said:
The Ford inboard CV joint looks a lot like this, but minus 1/2 a pound of grease.
tripodjoint.jpg



Worst case scenario is when the tripod is out of the housing, it gets really heavily jostled and one of the rollers falls off, which then distributes a whole bunch of the little needle bearings all over inside the joint. If this happens, you'll know it before you reach the end of the driveway.
Click to expand...

And if this happens then what needs done?? the whole inner CV must be replaced??

I think this is exactly what happened to my car... My car still moves so the diff CAN'T be bad.. its the factory open diff...

Looking at my drivers side CV where it meets the trans. I see a clean line of axle grease spinning from the inner part of the boot and there is a gap of about n inch where the boot has came off of the rest of the shaft....and again its made a nice clean line around the other components nearby.

So what is the next step if this happens to be the problem??

Sorry for bringing this back to life but it is exactly what I believe I am experiencing
 
IF the tripods have let go...then replace the axle. Its a fairly straight foward job...and not that expensive. Loosen axle nut with large breaker bar while car is still on ground. Jack car up...use jack stands. Finish removing axle nut. Leave shock in knuckle, but loosen the top 3 strut nuts a little for movement. Unbolt sway bar link at strut and outer tie rod at knuckle. Pop knuckle off LCA but be careful not to FUBAR the the boot on the lCA. With a slide hammer remove axle. Insert new axle with D clip. The tricky part is getting the axle back into the hub AND aligned so the knuckle slides back onto the ball joint on the LCA. 2 people and a large pry bar will make the job much easier.
 
Agreed, if you think the inboard joint has let go or if the boot is ripped, just replace the axle. If this was an axle from some rare car with parts made of Unobtainium, I'd rebuild and re-boot the joint, but Contour half shafts are inexpensive and plentiful, just replace it.
 
^^^ I agree too, .... I don't think anyone should worry about over extending their CV joints.

When I take out my transmission, I split that CV joint rather than lever against the casing to pop the drive shaft. I normally slip the inboard shaft out of the box and tap the outboard CV cup out of the diff. from the inboard side, once the box is out.

Anyway; never had an issue with failed CV joints from dismantling and re-assembling..,.. even after dropping one of those bearings ... being unable to find it :mad: and taking a bearing from another shaft and using that. Not recommended, I needed to get finished ASAP, and as stated, these parts are so cheap that I wasn't risking anything expensive. Nothing bad came from the bearing swap, even after thousands of miles and several yearly inspections it's still running fine .. ...G.
 
I guess the best way is I can tell the axle refuses to want to rotate at all.. It feels like the car is trying to pop start itself but knowing what I do now. i believe those little bearings you referred to in a earlier post is my problem and because of this I can extrapolate that the axle/knuckle does not like to rotate with said bearings either missing or crushed. So it "pops" in an out of the axle while it is trying to rotate and makes it feel notchy like it rotates 1/8 a turn then stops, then clicks to catch up in a dying rotating mess of metal, bearings and broken parts.

So this week I will try my best to swap out the axle and see if that doesn't solve my problem.. but Gmorrel your right man, The sound and feel this makes is just HORRIBLE... I honestly thought i toasted the diff..

Would it be safe to say the car will need alignment after replacing said axle?? and would it be in best interest to just replace passenger side?? car has 120k on it, so I probably will. I honestly am trying to repair and care for this car for a long time, and do things right the FIRST time. I haven't spared ANYTHING so far in restoring this piece of Detroit awesomeness...

I was driving, all was well in the land of SVT and i pull up to a stop light and the car jerks and jumps all crazy and then everything is fine again...this was while in N, so i highly doubted that somehow the diff let go while coasting at 5mph towards a redlight in N. it then did it again as i started to turn the wheels back and forth.. So I limped the car home at like 10mph lucky for me i was only a couple blocks away..

I was doing some RESEARCH (hey odd what u find when u take the time to look) and came across this posting with the image above in Gmorrel's post and knew i was getting close... So once again CEG thanks for being awesome guys..
 
As long as you didn't change the Toe by messing with the outer tie rod ends you should be good to just bolt it back together and drive.
 
Ok so today sucked, period. I had two seperate axle installed on the car int he same day and it snapped both of them.. :(

My only guess is the Diff is starting to go and putting unwanted torque load on it.. :( any ideas guys Im now out 300$ and my car and I are now both broke
 
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