'03 Forester inner front CVs

[jonathan909]

I've been awfully quiet, not even lurking, just in one of those not-many-car-problems periods, which is fine with me.  But now I'm back with a question.

Daughter and I set out to change a couple of ball joints on her '03 Forester today.  They were, of course, a PITA to get out, and at this point one is changed.  But we ran into a bit of nastiness in the process:  The inner CV pulled apart, which was a really rude surprise.  I'm accustomed to the older cylindrical type that are roll-pinned to the diff shaft.  This one just presses in and the housing is hexagonal.  But the shaft and tri-pot roller assembly just pulled out of the housing.  Haynes says there's supposed to be a retaining ring in there, but there's no groove for one.  So do you just have to be careful never to tension one of these type, because all that's keeping it together is the boot, and if it slides off, you're SOL?

 

 

[el_freddo]

It should have a groove with a C clip in there. 

And very odd that it doesn’t have one. If there’s no groove that’s even more odd. 

Can you see a groove internally in the diff? There should be one in there. 

Cheers 

Bennie

[jonathan909]

Not looking into the diff; it's just sitting on a jackstand (because we had no intention of messing with that) and hard to see in there.  But the CV came out of it with a "reasonable" amount of prying, so my inference is that it's fine.

I just don't know how to proceed with putting this joint back together.  Obviously, Haynes can't be trusted absolutely, but prior experience with the older-style CV - and common sense - say that there should be a retaining ring... and a groove to hold it.  So I'm kind of stuck.