Passenger side half shaft broke

I unbolted the UBJ to get it back in. It definitely wasn't going back in otherwise, which makes me wonder how it happened in the first place. Will find out tomorrow!

 

Also edited the title again to remove the "HELP" part.

 

Happy to hear you made it down safely.

 

Do you happen to have a spacer on top of your shock?

 

good thought, but I’m up in Washington for next few months.

 

Homeward bound.

 

Thanks bud, much appreciated.

 

I do not. I'm thinking the inner CV might have been bad before all of this happened. I had some mystery pops and clicks that I had planned on diagnosing soon, I didn't think it was CVs before, but now, I'm thinking this may have been the source of those sounds. Going to tear it down tomorrow and find out for sure. I'll update the thread when I do, just in case anyone gets in a similar situation.

 

No worries bud, thanks for the info!

 

I'm spamming the below information across several relevant threads in hopes it might help folks who have hiked up a mountain to cell service in hopes of googling their way out of this predicament.

I had this exact thing happen to me last weekend, leaving me stranded at the bottom of an extremely steep set of switchbacks. Wasn't doing anything extreme, just typical 4x4 terrain -- but this was the first trip after rebuilding the LCAs and shocks (with new shafts for the shocks), so I'm kind of terrified it will randomly happen again. Like maybe I squeezed the LCAs a bit too hard in the press and pushed the balljoint a millimeter further out, or maybe the new shock shafts are a millimeter longer than the old ones, and now my axles can just randomly flop out of the tripod joints?

That seems to be what happened--the boot tore in half and the axle flopped down onto the LCA, with no apparent damage to the shaft or tripod other than from the subsequent flailing. I didn't notice it immediately because of the terrain -- just sounded like more rocks scraping against sliders -- so I unfortunately couldn't find one of the tripod donut bearings and thus couldn't pop it back together to drive out.

The reason I'm reviving this 2021 thread: I discovered it is actually super easy to separate the shaft from the outer CV joint with a hammer, if needed to limp home. No, not by driving the shaft splines out of the birfield star, that's fucking impossible. Instead, you just smash the cage to bits:



After wailing on the star for an hour... this photo was taken after the very first intentional blow to the cage, as tears of frustration gave way to tears of joy. (Would have been tears of blood if not for my sunglasses though, so keep that in mind if you go with this technique!)

Anyway, repeat as necessary to remove all the balls. Now you have an axle stub you can reinstall for the drive back to pavement in 3WD, assuming you have a front locker. It was enough to get me back up the switchbacks, down 8 miles of jeep trail, and then 300 highway miles home... and will hopefully last another weekend or two of bad decisions before I get around to fixing it.

I think I'm going to tuck the LCA cam bolts inward for now, alignment be damned. This completely sucked, and I don't know what else I can do to prevent it other than... I dunno, can I buy slightly longer axles or something? I guess limit straps would be the correct solution, but I hate limit straps. This suspension setup has worked perfectly for like 8 years and seen far greater abuse. Anyone have any other ideas?

 

That's wild, but a creative solution. Is that an OEM axle or aftermarket?

 

It was an OEM / CVJ rebuild, less than 5k miles on it.

I've never broken or worn out an axle, but there is no amount of overgrowth I won't plow through to follow some old forgotten road to nowhere. (If we don't use our roads, they become federal wilderness areas... and we have enough of that shit already.) So my paint is fucked and I tore like 6 CV boots last year. Didn't always have time to mess around with rebooting so I sometimes just swap in fresh remans... hence the low mileage. I agree that all of this is incredibly stupid, but I seem to enjoy it.

I already ordered a replacement from CVJ, forgetting that I don't have a core this time. Fuck! There went another $200.

Really bugs me that the axle just pulled itself out of the tripod. What's to keep the next one from doing the same thing? I have fairly stock suspension geometry: stock lowers, some kind of bolt-on tubular uniball uppers, and ... some freshly rebuilt 2.5 coilovers. The further the shocks can droop, the better, far as I'm concerned. It would make sense to limit droop with straps if the axles were binding... but this axle didn't bind, it just slipped apart. And that seems incredibly stupid.

 

Seems like a diff drop would help with that... I know diff drops get ragged on for reducing clearance, but the other option seems would be straps to limit your droop travel.

Your cam bolts turned close to all the way out (in the direction for negative camber)? Are your UCAs adjustable at all?

 

Ugh... I'm not dropping the diff. Not saying you're wrong, though... I'm just too stubborn. Just like I'm too stubborn to install limit straps. I believe there are actually several good reasons to do so, but I never needed them before, so I'm not going to try fixing this new problem by adding them. I'll add them once I figure out the axle situation. (I read that the shock towers can start cracking when the coilovers slam to full extension. Or... the shocks explode or something? I forget, but my shocks are at least 20 years old, with 700 lb springs cranked to shit, never had limit straps, and they still work just fine.)

My UCAs are not adjustable. LCA cams are freshly set from the alignment shop, the rears are tucked mostly inward but the fronts can come in much further. That'll put my camber off, but the tire on that corner is already damn near bald so I don't care if it wears to shit. Bought the set in 2019, slashed at least 7 sidewalls since, and somehow this one tire still survived and is no longer on hazard warranty. Gotta kill it somehow.

I have been looking into getting slightly longer axles... it appears that RCV can make custom length axles... out of adamantium I'm guessing based on their price --$2300 for a pair of standard length axles. Would feel kind of stupid paying long-travel axle prices to run with stock LCAs.

I actually just noticed this aftermarket option, though:



It appears to have two ball-type CV joints, with a greased spline to allow the shaft length to change. As opposed to OEM, with the sliding tripod joint, or RCVs with a plunge-type 6-ball CV. This actually seems like a clever design to me, and they quote 47 degree articulation range. I'm not sure if it can clear the shock though, but I'm thinking I might give it a shot. I'll be within daytrip range of the Rubicon next month, maybe I'll try running it with this axle to see if it is good idea or not?

 

They've been out for some years now - I ran them when they first came out

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/anyone-running-these-beefy-cv-axles.706951/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/extended-travel-cv-axles.767473/#post-27394817

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/extended-travel-2-5-shocks-without-ucas.847031/#post-30276954

Pics and more info in the above threads I linked, should help

 

Yeah I was going to say if the cam bolts (the front ones in particular) are adjusted way out for less camber, would also reduce the shaft (tripod) engagement within the CV.

Those Trakmotive shafts do look interesting, although one worry I have with parts like that is should you break one or have one wear out, you can't just toss an OEM one in its place as a replacement (even if temporary) if the problem that caused you to install them in the first place is still present.
I would certainly try to find out why the tripod popped out if it was fine before... Maybe take the inner boot off, assemble the suspension, and see how close the tripod is to the edge of the cup when at full droop... If it's due to the cam bolt adjustment, then I'd certainly try to wind them inward more.
An adjustable UCA could then allow you to dial in the camber separately from the LCA cams.

 

Man that is so weird. On paper that shouldn’t happen as there are other factors limiting droop, like the coilover or the uca hitting the coilover. The cv just slipping right apart is so damn wild, sucks that it happened.

 

I'm still working to get to the bottom of this, but my axle was definitely too short. Here it is re-assembled and reinstalled -- the tripod bearings were barely engaging this whole time!



I removed the shock, sway bar, and tie rod, so I could cycle the suspension and study how far the tripod joint moves. It turns out that the axle actually pulls a bit further out of the plunge joint at full stuff (axle level) vs at full droop -- which is contrary to my intuition, but makes sense when you look at the geometry. Steering lock to lock has very little impact. Basically, this axle had the tripod lugs riding at the lip of the housing at all times.

So far I can't get the inner CV out of the differential. Snapped a 1/8" steel rope trying to pull it with a sledge hammer. I'm going to machine a press adapter. Pulling these axles is easily the most frustrating job I've encountered on these trucks. Fucking impossible, muti-day fiasco, every fucking time.

I think this might be why the axle was too short:



I can see the circlip sticking past the star race. Isn't it supposed to seat in an internal groove? If that's the case... I don't see why they wouldn't put a stop mechanism on the star, to keep the axle from poking thru. Of course if this is normal, then something else is wrong, and I hope I can figure it out.

 

Is it possible the CVJ rebuild of the OEM is not done well, i.e. too short? Other possible short cuts?

Can you buy a new OEM and compare? I've heard on this forum that some rebuilds are lacking in length. I have no experience yet myself - so I bought an OEM spare.

 

Yeah that doesn't seem to work on these (tried something similar myself).
They need a very sharp blow (metal-against-metal) to disengage the clip inside the diff. An old large chisel with a metal end (for hammering on it) placed into the groove on the CV cup, and smacking it with a 3lb hand-sledge is what worked on mine. You may have to turn the CV ¼-turn at a time if it continues to be stubborn (apparently this can allow the circlip to fall into a better position where it can pop out of the internal groove easier).

Hard to tell for sure in your pic, but if there is not another groove for the circlip to go into at the star end, then it was likely made that way originally. You said it was an OEM CVJ rebuild... Any possibility they sent out something aftermarket by mistake? (I've not had any dealings with them myself)