Changed front springs, now I have no drive??? um WTF!!!

[clif]

So I replaced the front springs on my fto, have done so on many different cars, put it all back together and now when I put it in gear it grinds and doesn't move forward or backwards?

If I put it in neutral it rolls ok.

WTF did I do or didn't do, confused?

HELP!!!

[Shane001]

Sounds like your driveshafts are not in properly.

Either one end is not in it's spline correctly or you've pulled on the cv's and these have fallen to bits inside the cv boots.

[aza013]

2nd the above.

[Bennoz]

[clif]

oh f**k!!! so f**k is this going to be a pain in the arse?

I've never had cv's come apart doing this before

Going to pull it apart and take a look this morning, any pointers?

Thanks guys!

[Bennoz]

It will be one of the inner CV's where the drive shafts go into the gearbox. Just get underneath & see if one of the shafts has significant movement. The joint will probably look quite deformed too. Just undo the strut from the hub on that side & slot the drive shaft back in properly (hopefully you haven't torn the boot) and reassemble

[clif]

Thanks bro! Am jacking it up now

[clif]

Thanks bro!!!

It was the drivers side shaft, came out from the gearbox lol, undid the nuts holding the hub and guided
it back in, test drive and all good!!!

Damn, its just never occured to me that was even possible, I thought they would be secured in there lol.

Thanks again guys!!!

[Shane001]

Unusual for it to just pull out from the gearbox, they have a snap ring that should hold them in pretty tight. ie normally to remove them you really need to get a lever in between the gearbox and the cv joint itself to lever it out over the snap ring.

Therefore I'd be concerned that maybe someone has fitted this at some point without a snap ring = not good / fix asap.

[clif]

You could be right, I had the engine replaced last year, so might not have put the shaft in properly?

I will see my CV guy asap, probably needed to do boots anyway.

[payaya]

Bet the drive shaft has come out of the outer CV. You should see the outer boot twisted on the shaft and you should be able to feel movement in the shaft from the outer joint.