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Is my new Half shaft bad?


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so today i replace my other half shaft, as it was starting to knock when turning and i was forced to replace my other one about 2 weeks ago when it was banging, so i figured it would be fitting to do the other.

 

anyway, i got it all back together, but when accelerating, i get a tapping noise coming from what sounds like something in the tire/hub area. I examined everything, and could find nothing wrong with anything. It only happens when i accelerate (but not accelearting in N going down hill)... only when i'm giving it gas.

 

is thier anything it could be other than the joint? at first i thought it was my brake cable rattling against the strut support (as the clip is missing, and when jiggling it manualy it made a simmilar sound) but i wrapped it in a towell and it still did it. Its the sound of metal tapping against something, reminds me a baseball card in the spoke of a bike tire, but more metal sounding...

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Vibration while accelerating which goes away immediately when you lift off the gas and coast is almost always a sign of a bad DOJ (inner joint) of the axle. I'm not familiar with it producing a tapping noise.

so today i replace my other half shaft, as it was starting to knock when turning and i was forced to replace my other one about 2 weeks ago when it was banging, so i figured it would be fitting to do the other.

 

anyway, i got it all back together, but when accelerating, i get a tapping noise coming from what sounds like something in the tire/hub area. I examined everything, and could find nothing wrong with anything. It only happens when i accelerate (but not accelearting in N going down hill)... only when i'm giving it gas.

 

is thier anything it could be other than the joint? at first i thought it was my brake cable rattling against the strut support (as the clip is missing, and when jiggling it manualy it made a simmilar sound) but i wrapped it in a towell and it still did it. Its the sound of metal tapping against something, reminds me a baseball card in the spoke of a bike tire, but more metal sounding...

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i installed a brand new axle in my XT6 about 2 years ago and it lasted....hhhmmm...about a week. the joint blew into 193 pieces in the parking lot going about 15 miles per hour. i'm talking balls rolling around the parking lot and grease everywhere. so i installed a used one i had that's been in there since then.

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I second doj, i get the sound on downshift. If you wanted to dodge it up you could just swap the doj with from one side to the other. Then they will be spining the other way and you get the noise on decell. I have also been told they can make noise for a long time before they break.

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reman axles always suck. subaru sells remans that are alot better.

 

never understood how they could make a bad cv new again. they use the same cups on both ends. the cups are what gets scored, when the ball bearings get bad. you rebuild one with new balls, and you still have bad cups.

 

at least its life time warrantee right?????

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reman axles always suck. subaru sells remans that are alot better.

 

never understood how they could make a bad cv new again. they use the same cups on both ends. the cups are what gets scored, when the ball bearings get bad. you rebuild one with new balls, and you still have bad cups.

 

at least its life time warrantee right?????

 

Archemitis, this is what I was told about that: They supposedly machine out the sloppy scored cups, and then install oversize ball bearings.

 

Thats from my buddy at my local parts house. I don't know nuttin, thats just what he told me when I asked him the same question. With that story in hand, and tons of testimony from the far more experienced guys than myself here on the board, I made a descision to stay away from re-man, and only use new.

 

Pyro

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alright, i'll take it back to autozone today... but those lameo's wont have another half shaft for another few days cause i picked up the last one in the area, and i dont want to drive 60 miles to get one...

 

man, just when you think your done with somethin

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how could you test to see if the wheel bearings are going out? my apartment compelx does not allow car work (so everyone does it all on sunday when the office is closed) and i cant just go check it out at will..

 

In my view, thats an inherent issue with these ball bearings. You can't really examine the balls or races, cause you can't see them like with say timken tapered bearings. With those you can clean em up good and then examine carfully for pits, discloration, whathavyou. Probably best to just replace with new any ball bearings of unknown age/miles. I do. Hope this helps.

 

Oh, and you can save a little dough by buying them from a bearing house, industrial supply or such, instead of auto parts house. There's a good thread on this somewhere, but good luck finding it. Try search on this.

 

Pyro

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hey all just a little more info on this, my reman 1/2 shaft from napa only clunks on DEceleraration, but is warrantied for life so when I get tired of it enough or it blows into 193 peices(lol) I'll replace it with another free peiceocrap and keep on goin!:rolleyes:

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  • 1 month later...

Phycotron, if you are still reading this thread, I have some more info about the car that you might have forgotten when I sold it to you.

 

I had to have the wheel bearings replaced and packed with grease by a machine shop because at one point I had not tightened the axle nut on tight enough. I was using a 12" adjustable wrench at the time. I am pretty sure this happened on the drivers side. After this was done, I had to do some other work, and after some time I had to have the hub replaced because the splines were wearing down - again, axle nut not tight enough. The hub was replaced by a great mechanic in Jackson WY and he looked at the bearings and decided there was still plenty of grease so they were not regreased at that time.

 

Fast forward about a year. There was some popping noise coming from passenger side and it was because the axle nut was loose.

 

My conclusion is that the car has a solid history of having axle nuts come loose on both sides. I think this is because of the washer and triangular ring/cone fitting between the axle nut and the hub. You should try to get those replaced with new ones and see if this takes care of the problem. If not, then it might be time to repack or replace the wheel bearings on one or both sides. Unfortunately you have to take the whole assembly to a machine shop and have them press out the bearings. No way to replace them yourself.

 

You should also check the ball joints. One was replaced in Jackson WY but the other one (passenger side) could be going bad. This can cause a popping noise but usually only when turning.

 

Good luck.

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  • 1 year later...
Archemitis, this is what I was told about that: They supposedly machine out the sloppy scored cups, and then install oversize ball bearings.

 

Thats from my buddy at my local parts house. I don't know nuttin, thats just what he told me when I asked him the same question. With that story in hand, and tons of testimony from the far more experienced guys than myself here on the board, I made a descision to stay away from re-man, and only use new.

 

Pyro

Hey guys-

I just replaced both half shafts on my 92 loyale 5 sp. Drivers side has a new axle from china, and the passenger side has a local reman. Guess we'll see which one lasts longer!

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