Technical The short axle slides in and out of the gear easily by hand

[SailorBob]

Vehicle: 2010 Ducato Multijet 120 2.3L Turbo Diesel w/ Manual 6 speed transmission

Replaced my driver's side axle / driveshaft with a new one after I started getting vibrations while accelerating. Solved the vibration problem, but a few hundred kilometers later my gear box seized up. Replaced the gear box with one from a junkyard, drove about 150 kilometers and the next day while driving around my parking lot the shaft just popped out of the gear box. Parts shop swears it's the right driveshaft. With everything fully assembled I can easily pull the shaft cup out of the gear. That doesn't seem right, but I'm wondering if someone with more experience with Ducato gears and axles might be able to comment. I've been told that it's normal for Ducato's not to have retainer clips on their axles, so I'm wondering if this behavior is normal, because usually a bit of effort is need to pull an axle out of a gear.

I uploaded a short video showing the problem here.

 

[Anthony489]

Hi

I would expect to see a snap ring near the tip of the splined end, to keep things in place for normal driving but not so strong that you can't lever it off to disassemble. Does your shaft have a groove for a snap ring ?

 

[SailorBob]

I would have expected the same thing, but no groove for a snap ring.

 

[mikefitz406]

Hi

I would expect to see a snap ring near the tip of the splined end, to keep things in place for normal driving but not so strong that you can't lever it off to disassemble. Does your shaft have a groove for a snap ring ?

there is no snap ring fitted, this is normal.
The movement on the inner joint seems excessive, this may be your problem, The joint has been taken apart and the replacement cable ties are not ideal to retain the boot. I guess the internals have been incorrectly assembled or its excessively worn.

With a drive shaft in good condition and correctly fitted, it should not be possible for the shaft to detach from the box.


LHD vehicle with the short drive shaft? specified as left side drive shaft?

It seems that a great deal of work has been carried out on the steering and suspension , are there issues here?

Mike

 

[SailorBob]

there is no snap ring fitted, this is normal.
The movement on the inner joint seems excessive, this may be your problem, The joint has been taken apart and the replacement cable ties are not ideal to retain the boot. I guess the internals have been incorrectly assembled or its excessively worn.

With a drive shaft in good condition and correctly fitted, it should not be possible for the shaft to detach from the box.


LHD vehicle with the short drive shaft? specified as left side drive shaft?

It seems that a great deal of work has been carried out on the steering and suspension , are there issues here?

Mike

This is a LHD vehicle, we're talking about the short shaft on the driver's side. It's basically brand new, was replaced about two weeks prior to the gear failure and replacement. It was replaced due to vibration during acceleration between 80-110kph. It was replaced twice actually, in a period of a few months. No other serious suspension or steering work carried out. Just new tie rod boots and I replaced the stabilizer bar drop links cause they looked horrible. Recently replaced the disks and break pads.

The boot on the axle was ripped when tow truck loaded the truck. The shop fitted a new boot which as far as I can tell is a bit too small. This problem didn't exist before the gear was replaced.

 

[SailorBob]

So I found out what the problem is:

The inner axle joint is supposed to have a spring in it that keeps pressure on the cup to keep it in the transmission.


When my truck was loaded on the tow truck, they ripped the boot on the inner axle. When the guys who replaced the transmission went to replace the boot before installing the axle, apparently the spring fell out without them noticing...


Here's what it's supposed to look like installed:

I would have thought this would have been the first thing to pop into the head of the guy who replaced the transmission, but... oh, well.