CV Axel Blowout

[Kozuto_98]

Had a CV axel quit on me last night while I was out at a beach. At first I thought it was my throw out bearing giving up as it quit going up a relatively
steep hill and only made noise when I didn't have my foot on the clutch (my throw out bearing has always been noisy), but my driver side axel popped out of my transmission.

Me and a friend tried getting it back in with what we had on hand but no luck there. It almost seems like the suspension on the drivers side has pushed out a bit as the axel length was a little short, but as far as I could see neither my ball joint or bushings were messed up.

If anyone has some ideas what might have caused the axel to pop out from the transmission I'd love to hear as it'd help me sort everything out that may have caused the axel to pop out. Upon further inspection of the axel, inside the boot of the end that goes in the transmission was in pretty rough shape so that might be the culprit?

At the very least the whole event made for a nice picture. I was able to get a tow around 1am to my garage.

20210613_215008.jpg

[simon84]

Ive had the cv axle pop out of the diff. It was not properly inserted so the circlip was not holding it in. Tell-tale was that it was leaking.
On mine, the inner 1/8 inch (the bit on the end just past the circlip) sheared off and was sitting in the diff. I managed to pop out the piece inside and got a new cv axle. I was able to drive mine home 4 blocks in 4wd (now rwd).
My recent new set of cv axles were very hard to get all the way in!

[dlb]

kozuto, had you recently replaced the axle? I've never heard of an axle popping out of the trans without some kind of obvious precipitating event, like what Simon84 experienced.

To answer your question, a bad joint in the axle shouldn't cause it to pop out. A bad joint usually starts as a torn boot, which leads to clicking on turning, which eventually leads to that joint failing which manifests as no power to the front wheels.

Make sure to top of the trans oil after replacing the axle.

[Kozuto_98]

I haven't done any axles yet in the car, but the driver side one is much newer than the passenger side one. The driver side is the one that failed.
The plot also thickens with this. The axle snapped inside my front diff and subsequently took my transmission with it. I have no forward or reverse gears in FWD or 4WD, and an ungodly sound from the transmission.

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[dlb]

Well, that solves the mystery of why the axle came out, but that's a huge bummer. Sorry to hear it. Xirdneh has done some videos on disassembling the trans that would probably be helpful for rebuilding yours.

[Kozuto_98]

Well, that solves the mystery of why the axle came out, but that's a huge bummer. Sorry to hear it. Xirdneh has done some videos on disassembling the trans that would probably be helpful for rebuilding yours.

Is what it is. I'm gonna try a couple places that might have a 4.11 geared transmission tomorrow. I might take apart my transmission when I get bored just to see how bad the carnage inside is. Is there any markings or anything to look for when determining if a transmission is 3.73 or 4.11 other than knowing the year of the car?

[dlb]

you can't trust the year of the car, since the trans/diff may have already been replaced with the other gearing in its life. Sounds unlikely but it's happened to a few people on here over the years. The only way I remember reading is to count the teeth on the pinion gear:

viewtopic.php?p=72363#p72363

viewtopic.php?p=65701#p65701

[NWMO]

Hey Kozuto,

I'm gonna try a couple places that might have a 4.11 geared transmission tomorrow.

Many times folks know more than than they communicate, so I apologize if this isn't helpful. I cannot count the number of times folks reference differential gear ratios with the transmission. While they bolt together, they are completely separate units, there is no such thing as a 4.11 geared transmission. Robert Walker has shared there were VERY minor ratio differences IN THE TRANSMISSION GEARING here and there, but for all intents and purposes, a transmission from any year should bolt in and work. I will note, there are some minor differences in indicator lights and the wiring harness, etc. When I swapped an earlier transmission into my 85', I lost the "EL" indicator as it wasn't provided in 83'-84'.

The 3.73 vs 4.11 is crucial to have twinned in the front and rear differentials, but is totally independent of the transmission. I can only assume many folks swap the front diff and transmission together, so in that case the verbage makes more sense, (still incorrect, but more understandable).

That said, you have most likely broken the transmission input shaft, though I suppose another trans component may have sheared. While the front diff certainly sustained stress in breaking the axle, it may or may not be "trashed". Below is a picture of a parts car transmission in the back of my work truck when I pulled it. You can see the larger idler gear and some transmission gears down low and the long transmission input shaft up high. The input shaft slides into the clutch, pressure plate, etc. and includes a pilot bearing that sets inside the end of the crankshaft. Robert Walker has some wonderful videos online and most are linked here on this site as well. Good luck and keep us updated please.

[simon84]

I recently checked my rear diff gear ratio with the car up on blocks. By putting a chalk mark on both rear wheels and also on where the drive shaft bolts on ( I had my drive shaft removed at the time). I turned both the wheels exactly one revolution and counted the number of revolutions on the driveshaft mount. The answer is your ratio.

FWIW - My 87 Tercel has the early gear ratio (3.73:1) correct me if I got that wrong!
I recently swapped in a 1986 transmission but I had to switch over the front diff first so that I kept the right ratios in front and rear.
So I do have a 4.11:1 front diff laying in my garage that I'm not using.
I'll likely want to keep the input shaft since those are something that can go.

[NWMO]

Simon,

I believe 83’-84’ have the 3.73 ratio and 85+ should have the 4.11 ratio.

[Kozuto_98]

Here's the update on what's going on with my transmission right now. Probably going to pull the broken one out of my car today if it dries up outside, we had some rain yesterday. I stopped by a junk yard/towing service that I was informed might still have a couple Tercels, so I'm waiting for a call back from them today. If they don't have anything I already made a call to paydirt auto in nine mile river and there is still a couple transmissions left there. There is one in a 1986 that used to belong to the owner, and he said there should still be a couple transmissions taken out of some Tercels but I'd need to check the ring gear and pinion gear for the ratio.

Of course my luck, I break one car and magically get another car to use the next day. I've got my sister's 98 Accord v6 to get my by until she's back from Alberta so thankfully I still have a way to get around.

[Petros]

the front ring gear on the 4. 1:1 ratio ring and pinion set has "4.1" stamped on the edge. take off the front cover and rotate it around, wiping it off with a rag, and you should find it. for some reason th 3. 73 ring gear has no markings on it.

it is entirely possible you have different front and rear ring and pinion from a previous owner installing the wrong one. And that caused the failure. twice I have purchased "rescue" Tercel4wd that was derivable but "has something wrong with the 4wd", and I found it had mismatched front and rear diff ratio. the clue is if a previous owner tells you it has a "new" transmission.

[Kozuto_98]

As far as I know the person I bought the car from never replaced the transmission, but put in a driver side cv axle. It's certainly possible that someone down the line had put in another transmission, sometimes when I used 4WD in the winter it would get stuck in 4WD and I'd have to put a lot of force into taking it back to FWD, so maybe there was some sort of binding going on?

I did manage to get my hands on another transmission today, I sadly couldn't get a 4.11, but got a 3.73 from an 83 that's in really good shape. The 4.11 I wanted was in another 86 Tercel named 'puff the magic wagon', the reason I didn't take it is because a friend of mine who was with me decided to buy the whole car to fix up. I'm either going to swap the front diff, or swap my rear diff. 3.73 might not be so bad to have once I get the 4A-GE swapped in.

[dlb]

It's very common to have a little difficulty shifting out of 4wd, just make sure to do it on surfaces with lots of give like mud, snow, gravel, etc. If you had a mismatched trans and diff you would have problems all the time. I think this is a thread that covers when old member Homeskool wound up with a mismatched trans/diff:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2568&start=45

[simon84]

Let me know if you want to pay shipping on the 4.11:1 front diff that I have.