Axles play

[H22A91CB7]

Ok yesterday i jacked up my cb and grabbed my axle (halfshaft) and pulled it back and towards the hub and it made a clunk noise, and also when i push it back towards the tranny it clunked also, is this normal???

[prNonVtec4u]

almost... just don't keep doin it or you WILL ruin it. any other signs that come to tell you there's anything wrong with them? ex. clicking/poppin

[H22A91CB7]

almost... just don't keep doin it or you WILL ruin it. any other signs that come to tell you there's anything wrong with them? ex. clicking/poppin

na but my front pass. wheel feels like jello the way it wiggles when i go over a bumb in the road, it wiggles like hell but rides smooth on a smooth road

[Losiracer2]

if they have side to side play that's normal, but up and down play means something is worn out like the CV joints. They're supposed to move in and out when the suspension compresses/rebounds to compensate for the susp. travel.

[brooklynkid1986]

na but my front pass. wheel feels like jello the way it wiggles when i go over a bumb in the road, it wiggles like hell but rides smooth on a smooth road

Ball joint sounds bad. maybe tie rod.

With car sittin on ground pull hard on the top of tire. If it moves, upper BJ is gone. Jack it up and do the rest of the test. Dont pull in or out on the driveshaft. very bad.

[batever]

Ok yesterday i jacked up my cb and grabbed my axle (halfshaft) and pulled it back and towards the hub and it made a clunk noise, and also when i push it back towards the tranny it clunked also, is this normal???

first, it doesn't sound like an axle issue at all, unless maybe the axle nut was very loose.

In/out motion on the axle halfshaft, including the clumk, like you descibed is normal. The clunk is likely the end of the axle hitting the end of the outer bearing race, or possibly the bearings bottoming out in the bearing race, depending on the clearances in there (I haven't measured them). Hopefully it's the end of the axle section hitting as it's just a solid rod of steel, hard to mess up. But it's not advisable to push in or pull out on the driveshaft fyi as others have pointed out. the bearings are designed to slide in grooves in there and will actually slide right out if you pull hard enough. The rest of the suspension (the fact that the wheel is at a fairly fixed distance from the tranny car and is held there by the control arm, radius rod, etc) is what keeps the inner and outer cv joints together within the correct or safe length in the in/out direction, as they are only designed to transfer rotational force, not in/out force, although tthe bearings do slide in and out a little to compensate for suspension travel. If you ever pull an old cv joint apart and look at it when you're replacing it with a new one you'll see what I mean.

The way to tell if you have cv joint wear is if it pops and clicks on turns, as any small wear in the bearing races will show under load as a space in the joint that, when the bearing again contacts the race, makes a clicking or popping sound on with the bearing race.

No worries though about pulling the halfshaft and pushing on it once or so, probably you'll be fine. Esp as long as the last one was a Push, because that push pushes the joint together and the main worry would be pulling the joint physically apart and pulling the bearings out.


as to the wobbly jello wheel on bumps, it sounds like the lower (or possibly upper) ball joint or tie rod ends. This seems like the most likely scenario.

If those seem fine, then

1) check your hub--does it spin tightly (you can rotate it but it stops as soon as you stopt turning it) or loosely (it just spins easily when you turn it by hand).

It should spin tight and stop when you stop turning it, else it's worn out.

Also, is your axle nut on to the right torque, (187 ft lbs or so).