15/11/09 - CV problems

Folowing a busted CV joint - see Busted  I have spent the last couple of evenings fitting it.

CV joints are held on the driveshaft by a hidden circlip which always makes it difficult to remove the joint. However as you can see from the picture below the joint has exploded, leaving me with the small "star" shaped end on the end of the shaft.

It appears that this was more damaged than it looked it seemed welded to the end of the shaft with no movement at all. I cut it in half using a grinder and still one have stuck to the driveshaft. With it in half I could pull the circlip and managed to drive it off the shaft. However it then became clear that the splines on the end of the shaft were damaged. Looking at the hub spindle end there was also a very large dent distorting the oil seal. So I guess the exploded metal rotated around the swivel housing damaging various bits. 

The old way I could get the new joint on was to file the splines using needle files into some sort of shape, the new  joint then fitted but will be really difficult to remove  next time around. So try not to drive it too far with the joint broken as the bits can cause some real damage.

Martin