(T) what happens when a cv joint fails?

the driveshaft comes off, flails round and you loose drive, thats what.

my car now looks abandoned on a road in town, good thing it was already booked in tomorrow morning to be fixed.. now.. how the hell do i get it there?

is it safe to tow it?

Is it the inside or the outside joint...?


Paul T

did you have any warning like knocking noises or anything like that??

is it inner or outer? if its outer thats failed then just tie the shaft up and tow away! if its inner then im not sure itd be a good idea as itd still flail around. in this case you need someone with a car trailer or the AA/RAC. can you ask the garage how much theyd charge to recover it?

hi

it was the outer, ns cvjoint. I knew it was on its way out, and has been for a while (too long). It was already booked into the garage for this morning to have it replaced.

It had been knocking and clicking and tapping for a while, put got a lot worse over the last week. I had just driven up to get some bits for my mates car, and on the way home the wheel started voilently pulling to one side and shaking. I stopped thinking the joint had smashed, and had a look. It was still connected. So i carried on to my mates house, turned into his road and went to put some power down (i was driving like a fairy so not to break it!) and it went clunk very loudly and totally lost drive.

After insepcting it with more light, the shaft was still seated in the joint, just not connected to anything anymore. It made a horrendous noise under-tow, but the garage was less than a mile away, so towed it up there last night and dropped the keys off this morning and had a quick chat. New driveshaft on order, hehe

Its annoying.. out of our lil trio of petrol heads, all 3 cars are off the road now. Mine with this problem, gexs with various bits (but should be back after a month today!) and vivs smart car which he lost the back end of at 60mph on a bend and put us up a kerb and into a hegde backwards!

Found this bit on the floor where my cinq came to rest after loosing drive:

Hi,
That would be two thirds of the ball carrier cage then.........wonder where the rest went to..

The photo of the end show a brown discolouration (like rust), must have been cracked for a while....

Thanks
Paul T

hehe, yeah the ive known it was in need of repair for around 1500miles. Like i said, it was booked in already to have the work done. Intially it was booked in for last week, but my mechanic was ill

anyone got any info on how a cv joint is put together, im not really sure what they look like inside but am intrigued now

i scanned a pic from my old mechanics text book for you. the bit you have left is the cage.
http://www.fiatforum.com/gallery/sho...sort=8&cat=500
i once had a sierra with a knackered universal joint on the prop shaft which fell apart about 100 yards from the scrappers i was going to to get another. luckily the last 100 yards was a downwards slope so i just coasted into the car park. had a bit of a job replcing it tho laying in a puddle. ah happy memories!

aha

i see now. thanks for scanning that

Give that man some rep i'd say