Driveshaft Installation Problem

Hello,

I've been having great difficulty correctly installing a reman.
driveshaft (Cardone #60-4003) on the driver's side of my '91 Civic Si.
When I install the driveshaft in the transmission it locks into place,
but it is not all the way in. It leaks oil. I replaced the passenger's
side driveshaft at the same time and that one went in without a hitch
and is not leaking at all.

I remember what the clearances between the driveshafts and the
transmission looked like before I began the work. The clearances looked
identical on both sides.Now there is a noticeable gap on the driver's
side, but the passenger side looks completely normal. I have some
pictures I took with a digital camera showing the clearances, but have
no where to post them.

I have taken a shaft around to shops for comparison to other units and
they appear to be identical, so I don't think I got a bad shaft. I have
new transmission seals I am going to install, but I doubt this is the
cause of this problem. An aquaintance said he had a driveshaft come out
of his transmission while driving and he "pounded it in" and that he has
put another 50k on the car and it is doing fine. I am hesitant to beat
on the shaft, but have been wasting a lot of time and energy on this and
am starting to think maybe I do need to force it in further.

Could the transmission some how be at fault for not allowing the shaft
in all the way? I somehow wedged my head under my car so I could look in
the tranny where the driveshaft is inserted with a flashlight, but
couldn't see any obvious problems. A 'service advisor' at the local
dealer I spoke to on the phone couldn't really think of how the tranny
would be at fault. Do old retaining clips get hung up inside? I am
really stuck on this, and for a while suspected I had a bad shaft (wrong
application). I may have to relinquish this to a repair shop or a dealer.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated,

Mark

 

sometimes the set ring can be real tight. unless the pinion in the diff
has been damaged by being driven without being seated properly, a good
sharp whack /is/ the way to make it slide fully home. and make sure the
seal's ok now you've run it in this condition too.

 

I had a similar experience where the previous owner had to replace
the shaft/joint to pass the Vehicle Test (MOT) but the fitter hadn't
got the wheel end properly home into the hub.

On leaving an evening with a friend, I had just pulled away when I lost
drive and had to call the AA out to rescue me. The tow home on a rigid
bar was quite exciting but fortunately the there was no damage done to
the shaft and, after an inspection, my fitter neighbour had sufficient
strength to get it to seat and lock into place.

 

Do you still have the old shaft? If I recall correctly on some honda shafts
the inner joint on one side only has splines half-way up.... perhaps they
have the wrong inner joint on that assembly.

 

Should I apply the force on the outter edge of the metal cylinder that
is part of the inboard joint? I can envision making a piece of wood with
a slot that could apply the force at two points on the circumference. I
would probably put something smooth and soft between the boot (covering
the edge of the cylinder) and the wood. The piece would look like this:

--------------------|
| <-----------------------
___________| |
| <---space for shaft |
|___________ |--- force applying area
| |
| <----------------------|
____________________|

I am guessing pounding on the wheel end of the shaft could be hard on
the outboard joint. Any criticism or other ideas?

Much thanks for the advice so far,

Mark

 

Maybe this will show up okay, I am not experienced in the arcane art of
ASCII.

 

oh well

 

--------------------|
88888888888888888888| <----------
88888888888888888888| |
8888888| <---space for shaft |
8888888|____________ |-force applying area
88888888888888888888| |
88888888888888888888| <----------
88888888888888888888|
--------------------|

 

i've always just pounded on the wheel end of the shaft, making sure it's
properly aligned first. strictly speaking, because there are bearings,
you shouldn't do this because of the potential to damage them, but in
reality, this treatment is no worse than they see in service. use a
dead blow hammer or a block of wood and lump hammer to do the work.
that really should work. if not, you need to very carefully inspect for
damage in the diff pinion. if you're certain that's ok, you can proceed
to the emergency final step.

you can try the arrangement you're indicating above, but the problem is
damaging the boot. to avoid this, the d/s has to be disassembled.
that's not a great idea but it works! just remove the sealing band from
the fat end of the boot, CAREFULLY remove the cup [making sure you don't
lose bearings or grease], position & drive into diff, then reassemble
shaft in place. need a new band.

if you still have it, disassemble the old shaft first so you're familiar
with it's contents before trying this solution.

 

Thanks a lot Jim, that sucker is going to go in this weekend.

Mark

 

A friend's shaft came out when turning. He calls me after several attempts fail
to seat it. With the tire out of the way, I reach under and pull the shaft out by
hand and turn 45 degrees clockwise and with both hands gripping the shaft, I
swing it back in, using the shaft's momentum as a hammer. No luck. Turn
again 45 degrees, swing it in and it went right in. Turns out the groves/rings
were either damage or misaligned. (The service manual calls for a new ring.)

People ought to realize that it requires two clicks to seat or go in with
turning. And I wouldn't apply more force than needed. Especially from
forcing something that appears to jam. Here's a recap. On a normal vehicle,
turn shaft/rotor 45 degrees or more, push/swing inward by hand all the way,
then pull back out slightly if it goes to far (not pulling on the boot,) until it
clicks. Measure the difference with the other shaft-to-transmission by feel
or by whatever tools you have.

Rick

 

I've got some funny, good news. The replacement driveshaft I have been
trying to install was seating properly all along. The problem was the
oil seal. Whoops! I could have sworn that the shaft locked in closer to
the transmission earlier, but oh well. I think the clearance appeared
different because the seal was disturbed. Depending upon how often you
swap out driveshafts its probably always a good idea to do the seals also.

Mark