1988 GL FWD

 

friend of mine owns this car. he called and said that when he pulled the wheel off he noticed that he can rotate the hub about 1/4 to 1/2 a turn before the axle starts to spin or engage. i've never heard of that happening and asked him if he knew for certain that he could turn the hub that far without the axle moving at all. he's going to check again.

 

is that possible, i've never seen it before? a guy working on the car for him told him ne needs new CV axles on both sides because they both do it.

 

car only has about 80,000 miles on it.

Could be a striped hub. If so, normally it's the hub and not the driveshaft. Although I'd bet you'd want to replace both...

is there any way to tell if the hubs are stripped? he says both sides are like that. one turns about 1/4 of the way around and the other about 1/2? that sounds crazy to me, i'm not sure what to tell him over the phone.

given the size of the splines - that amount of move is unlikely (very!) . is there a bizarre axle joint prob? the cv?

is there a bizarre axle joint prob? the cv?

i'm out of town and dont' have any info except what he tells me over the phone. his buddy said he thinks it's the CV. they're getting into it this weekend.

One way to tell if splines or CV joint:

 

Watch CV cup/boot and axle shaft. If, while turning the wheel, the cv cup doesn't move the axle is stripped. If the cup moves but the axle shaft stays still and the boot twists up, then the CV has issues. If the cup, boot, and shaft move but the DOJ boot twists and the its cup doesn't move, then DOJ issues.

AWESOME!! so simple! thanks. (slaps head)!!

Probably badly torqued castle nuts - I've had that problem repeatedly on one EA82 that I worked on. The hubs will strip out as they are cast, and the axle will just wear down a bit when they grind. The result is the hub is totally chewed, and the axle is worn to where it *looks* alright, but will destroy more hubs in short order. The way to fix it for good is replace axle, hub, and nut/cone washer.

 

GD

GD,

have you seen this partial rotation issue before? rotates some..then catches?

GD,

have you seen this partial rotation issue before? rotates some..then catches?

I haven't experienced it, but I can certainly see it happening... wouldn't take much variation in the wear to let it happen. Might not "catch" under load, though.

Yeah - I'm thinking that the splines are probably worn out, and it's just catching on random bits of spline that are left in the hub. That's my guess. That's the only thing I could see happeneing that would allow the partial turning of the wheel and him still being able to drive it. Any CV or DOJ that had that kind of play in it would surely make an ungodly racket going down the road if it didn't fail immediatly. Failure mode for the axle components is either severe clicking, or catostrophic failure.... there's really no inbetween for those. If you have ever taken one apart you would understand.... they are close tollerance machined parts, and any little amount of play would turn into a big BANG - the forces at play on them is too great to allow 1/4 of a turn to not destroy one.

 

GD

They are checking this with both front wheels off the ground right? Tranmission a manual?

 

Really doesn't sound right the way it's desbribed, so I'm starting to question the testing methods.....

 

GD

Really doesn't sound right the way it's desbribed, so I'm starting to question the testing methods...

i thought the same thing, i was thinking he was talking about the minimal amount of play that the differential has, but he says it's not right. he doesn't work on cars but his "buddy" does. i did tell him to carefully inspect the hub for damage, check torque and washer/nut. i'll call him tomorrow reinforce that. thanks GD.