Question for the mechanics

[ryanstev]

I took my BF in to a garage on Wednesday to have my tail shaft yoke rotated 180 degrees.
I told them I'd changed my center hanger bearing and marked the yoke on the shaft, but not the yoke relative to the other and I had a vibration that I didn't have before and I thought it was 180 degrees out.
I also told them that I wasn't really that pleased with the universal joint change I did, so they said they'd replace it.

They said they didn't think the yoke as causing the vibration, they thought the car had a shimmy in the rear and recommended I replaced the whole tail shaft instead.
I said it didn't have a vibration before, so they changed the universal joint, but didn't rotate the yoke (to cover themselves) they also told me that they repacked the rear CV which bolts to the diff.

Driving home after work the vibration was still there, so I called them yesterday morning, they recommended again that I just change the tail shaft, I said I couldn't afford that and just wanted to rotate the yoke.
They told me, *important* they'd have to fit a new universal joint, as they fit them with a hammer, not a press.

I rang around and found a garage that presses them in, they said they'd press the old u joint out and reuse it, but it's on me. Which is fair.

I dropped it around to them and about 2 hours later they called me and told me the CV joint has a hole in the side, caused by incorrect assembly by whoever worked on it last. They said I almost lost the balls in the joint, which gave me a fright. They said they haven't performed any work on it, they put it on the hoist, saw the joint, then parked the car and called me.

I walked to the first garage, they told me, with a smile, that he'd told me about this and tried to talk me out of the work I wanted him to do, but I insisted. (Partly true, he mentioned it probably wasn't worth replacing the universal joint but didn't mention the hole though.) He said it was just a small hole by a bolt and the other garage was trying to scare me.

I decided to believe him, because I wasn't careful enough with the CV boot and thought I'd pierced the rubber and that's where the hole was, because the car didn't feel like it had a gaping whole in the side of the CV joint.
I agreed to get a new tail shaft with them (it hasn't arrived yet) and picked up the car from the other garage and drove home at the end of the day.

Well, tonight I decided to have a look at the CV joint, I've attached a picture and have a couple questions once you've had a look.



Question 1: Is there any possible way, what so ever, that you'd even so much as clean the windshield, much less work on a CV joint, of a car that came in with a CV joint looking like that?

Question 2: The bulges from the cover, cover the bolts, you can't remove the bolts, because the metal cover is in the way, correct? I suppose you *could* use an open ended spanner to turn the bolts 1/16th turns at a time, but they aren't rounded at all. I don't know why I'm asking the second question, I already know the answer to question 1.

Since they told me they used a hammer, not a press to fit the joint, it means they had to remove the CV joint to do that, you can't use a hammer when the joint's still on the car, that answers question 2, they had to have removed it, so the CV didn't look like that when they began.

[Davehoos]

would I be correct in thinking the ball and cage are now/or have been in the dust cover ?

sort of thing that happens when you let the tail shaft hang so you can remove a trans.
or pull out one side to work on the gear box end..

[ryanstev]

Originally Posted by Davehoos

would I be correct in thinking the ball and cage are now/or have been in the dust cover ?

sort of thing that happens when you let the tail shaft hang so you can remove a trans.
or pull out one side to work on the gear box end..

The car feels the same as when I drove it in to them, so I'm guessing they pulled the cage out and somehow tried to fit it from the wrong side and used the cover to push it in, until they realised their mistake and put it the right way.

But that doesn't explain how they managed to bolt it back in, unless they got the apprentice to spend an hour turning each bolt 1/16th at a time.

[99AUXR]

Ahh that CV joint shouldnt be bulging like that, like they have bulges but they look allot bigger than normal..... WTF

[hillbillyhauler]

Looks like the bolts were done up finger tight if even that tight.

[Windsor220]

That's what another one looks like. There is enough room to put a socket on them

[ryanstev]

Thanks for the replies.

This was definitely caused by an assembly error, correct?
As far as I can tell, this couldn't have been caused by the CV joint and tail shaft being correctly assembled and fitted and then this happening while you're driving, because the tail shaft simply can't move forward enough to pull the cage out like that.

[ryanstev]

So not to beat a dead horse, but I had another look today, moving the car a bit to spin the CV joint around so I could see the actual hole in the cover.



That's an actual ball from the CV joint poking through the hole.
The second garage weren't exaggerating when they said I almost lost a ball from the joint, technically I have already lost it from the joint, since it's not in the cage anymore, but in the cover.

[joolz]

Looks as though the joint has been over articulated causing the balls to coma out of the race. A new CVJ can be pressed on instead of replacing the entire driveshaft. Its an IFA 99mm CVJ from memory.

[Hally]

Ryan,

I am a little confused by your post. Did you get the first shop to replace a tailshaft universal joint, but the pictures you have up are for an axle CV joint? From my way of thinking the first shop could have changed a uni joint without touching the axle cv's. Or am I missing something? Or is the tailshaft connected to the diff by a CV joint and the gearbox yoke has the uni joint?

Cheers,

Andrew

[ryanstev]

The tailshaft has a universal joint in the center, as it's a two-piece it connects to the diff via a CV joint, which is what they damaged.

I spoke to the garage today, they say it looked like that when the worked on it.
The boss wasn't in, I spoke with the second in charge, he said he and the boss were both working on this.
Their website says the boss has 24 years experience and the 2IC 15 years.


He was spinning so many lies and I think he realised that I wasn't falling for it.
EG, I said you couldn't even get a ring spanner on the bolts to remove them and he said they were only finger tight and I pointed out that if that was somehow the case, you still couldn't turn them, because the metal cover would prevent them from moving out.

I also told him this was caused by them bolting the CV joint up first, then realising they couldn't get the front on, due to the dowel on the end, so they bent the center down enough to push the front in, he told me you can't fit them like that and I said "I know, because this is what happens if you try, the ball jumps out of the cage and then on its first drive runs around the cover"

I'm sure the owner will spin more lies, because he's the guy who claims he told me about the hole last week, which I know they caused to begin with, but we'll see.

I'm not a confrontational person, so I'll let him blame the other guy and act like the "****ed off boss, unhappy with his other worker for their workmanship" if he wants an out.

I'm just so thankful that I had worked on this earlier so know for a fact the condition of everything and also how everything connects. I believed their initial lie, until I saw the damaged myself.