HELP! I HAVE A 3 WHEEL DRIVE TROOPER

Gumball · August 16, 2009

Hi all you Trooper Gurus,

What is involved in replacing the CV joint on the outboard end of the left rear axle? Hopefully it not a major project. The RV resort I'm in frowns on making repairs in the park.

I'm about 175 miles from Tempe so can take it there if I have to.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Gumball

August 17, 2009

Hi all you Trooper Gurus,
What is involved in replacing the CV joint on the outboard end of the left rear axle? Hopefully it not a major project. The RV resort I'm in frowns on making repairs in the park.

I'm about 175 miles from Tempe so can take it there if I have to.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Gumball

It's actually quite simple. Remove the wheel, brakes and rear spindle. After removing the hex nut, (put a bar between the wheel studs to hold from turning) the spindle slides off of the stub axel on end of the axel assembly. Remove boot over outboard CV joint and slide up axel. Now strike the back side ( differential side) of the outboard CV joint bell housing. It should pop out. There is a snapring that is unaccessable on the end of the middle axel section. It's in a groove on the axel and the outboard side of the center retainer holding the balls in the bell housing. When It's pulled on hard enough or struck hard enough, the snapring compresses further into the groove on the axel allowing the middle axel to slide out. To put it back to gether, just force it back into its spline, the snapring will again compress and the axel will snap back in place. I had to remove one of my axels from the CV joint at the diff so I could put it into the vise to get the end to come off. The other side came right off. Once the axel is removed from the CV assembly, you can rotate the ball retainer in order to manulipate the balls out and remove the retainer.

good luck

Lenny

Gumball · August 17, 2009

Hi Lenny,

Thank you for the good information. I have a friend here that has a Trooper, a lot of talent, and a shop. With your information we should be able to get the job done. Hopefully parts are available as needed.

Thanks again. It's great to be a part of the Trooper family.

Gumball

Kinarfi · August 17, 2009

What happened? How come you only have 3 wheel drive, did the axle come out of the CV on it's own like mine did a couple times or is it something else?

Thanks,

Kinarfi

Gumball · August 17, 2009

Hi Kinarfi,

At this point in time I'm not really sure what failed. At first I found no power to the rear wheels while in 4WD. The front was pulling but no power was getting to the rear. I suspected a broken axle so I locked the rear differential. That gave me power to one rear wheel. I drove about 15 mile in this condition. When looked at the rear end the right axle, not the left as I stated, was loose at the wheel. I'll take a closer look tomorrow.

I never heard any unusual sounds as I motored along. I did noticed under power the car tried to veer off to the left.

With Lennys instruction and the help of a fellow trooper owner I should get it back together fairly soon, depending on what parts I need.

I'll keep the group posted.

GumballI

August 17, 2009

Almost sounds like the hex nut that holds the wheel hub on the axel came loose. The brakes could still hold the wheel on but you wouldn't have power to it. The entire axel could slide enough torwards the diff to back out of the spline. This would cause the side pull and loose rear wheel. Just maybe but probably not likely. Let us know what you find. This hex nut wants to be about as tight as you can get it with a good 18 to 20' ratchet handle and be sure to use a cotter key to lock it. I mean real tight.

Lenny

Gumball · August 17, 2009

Here is a picture of where the part failed. It looks to be:

ERP Code 02.DLJ.PT

SZW5022

Code Name

PT SZW5022

Description

Bell Type Housing

Whether this is a single part or part of an assembly, I don't know. As half of the housing is gone I would guess that it broke in half?

Any thoughts will be appreciated. I'm hoping the axle splines aren't destroyed.

Gumball

August 17, 2009

Your bell housing looks to be ok. The retainer holding the 6 balls look to still be in place. Looks to me like the axel just slipped out of the retainer and twisted off the rubber boot. Check the clip on the end of the axel, there are 2 of them. The first one locks the axel in behind the retainer and the second one keeps it from going in too far. If the first one looks ok, you may be able to just stretch it out to make it form a larger diameter circle so it clips in to the retainer groove tighter. You may not need nothing more then the rubber boot. This is unless there is something your pic isn't showing.

By the way, there shouldn't be any play in the wheel caused by this problem. The play is from something else. Either the holes it the tabs holding the bearing housing are elongated or your bearing is getting loose. Past threads talk about these problems and cover fixes.

Lenny

Gumball · August 17, 2009

Hi Lenny,

Your words are encouraging. Tomorrow morning I'll take it over to my buddies place where we can work on it. I'll let you know how it goes.

If you don't mind my giving you a call during the operation I'd appreciate having your phone number. My email address is [email protected].

Thanks again for your help.

Gumball

Kinarfi · August 18, 2009

CV Boot Kit, Autozone part # 03606. Comes with bands and grease for $11.99.

Napa 686-2181 CV Boot from a 95 Geo Metro.

If you go this route, please confirm information, it came from; Parts, Pieces, and Information for our Troopers.

Hope it's all you need.

Kinarfi

Gumball · August 19, 2009

3 Wheel Drive is back to 4 wheel drive. Apparently what happened is the suspension while topped out was accompanied by enough frame flex to allow the axle shaft to come out of the bell housing.

Lucky for me I was able to clean up the end of the axle with a Dremel tool to the place that I could pound it back into the housing. Needless to say the end of the axle was dinged up after driving about 15 miles with it flopping inside the torn up boot.

As the result of this I will install a "limit strap". I'll put one at all four wheels. This will keep the suspension from topping out to the place the axle is displaced. They are quite common on off road race cars. I think I'll try some aircraft cable before I spend the $25.00 + straps. I'll let you know how it works out.

It turned out that my friend Ernie had a couple axle boots so I didn't have to order any. I did stop at a couple of auto parts stores, Autozone, and Napa. Neither had the boots in stock. I did look at one at Checker that was for the 95 GEO. The small end of the boot was to small to work.

My Thanks to all who offered suggestions, and especially to Ernie who lent me the use of his shop, tools, and talent. I wish he could meet Lenny, they are birds of a feather.

Gumball

August 20, 2009

I'm not I'm sure I'm comfortable with aircraft cable. It may work ok but it is very unforgiving and it will probably take some shock loads which could eventually brake wires. I like using the 2" wide trucker tie down strap material. It has a working strength of I believe 10,000 pounds and it has a little stretch to soften shock loads. I use a 1" x 3/16" x 3" long strip welded to the frame and another that bolts to it at it's ends with the strap pinched in between. To guarntee it can't pull out, I run the strap down through inbetween the two steel strips then around a piece of 1/4" threaded rod and right back up through the two steel strips. Once it's bolted tight, there is no pulling it out. The rod being threaded prevents it from sliding out. It's super strong, cheap and can take much more tight bending then aircraft cable. I once was asked to analyze what failed and helped contribute to a fatal trailer accident. The drunk driver clipped a 10" high curbing protruding out for a bridge crossing. The trailer used aircraft cable as a safty connection to the car. The impact knocked the trailer loose and snapped the cable, and the trailer went through the driver side windshield of an oncoming car killing the driver. Had that been a chain or a nylon strap, it would have held. As a result, the trailer manufacture was held partially liable due to negligence in the selection of the steel cable. I know, I may be getting a little carried away.

Lenny

Gumball · August 20, 2009

Hi Lenny,

As usual you have some good points. If you could include a picture of how you're set up it would help me to see how it should be done.

I was thinking of attaching the cable to the lower shock mount and attaching the top to the frame. It will be a severe shock on the cable when the suspension tops out. Now the shock takes the load, and apparently in my case something gave enough for the axle to slide out.

I've got a ride coming up this Saturday and it will be embarrassing if this happens again. Owning the only Trooper in the club makes me want to be sure that it doesn't break down on the trail. With this failure I just quietly headed for home. No one was the wiser that I had a problem.

Gumball

August 20, 2009

Hi Lenny,
As usual you have some good points. If you could include a picture of how you're set up it would help me to see how it should be done.

I was thinking of attaching the cable to the lower shock mount and attaching the top to the frame. It will be a severe shock on the cable when the suspension tops out. Now the shock takes the load, and apparently in my case something gave enough for the axle to slide out.

I've got a ride coming up this Saturday and it will be embarrassing if this happens again. Owning the only Trooper in the club makes me want to be sure that it doesn't break down on the trail. With this failure I just quietly headed for home. No one was the wiser that I had a problem.

Gumball

Some pics. Be sure to round the edges of the plates where the strap rolls over them.

Lenny

Gumball · August 20, 2009

Thank you Lenny.

The pictures give a clear view of your setup.

Gumball

Kinarfi · September 14, 2009

I imagine you have this long fixed, but the NAPA CVB6862340 Boot kit comes with grease and a snap ring and a Circlip and bands.

I used some of the grease and the circlip recently when Mine did the same thing, I used black Tyraps to secure the boot.

Kinarfi

PS If this happens to you, try to tie the axle up and pad/protect the splines with paper, wood, leather, or what ever to keep them from grinding again metal. I haven't tried this, but if you have a pry bar, you could pop the CV at the diff loose and remove the axle.