e53 4.8is Front Drive Shaft Help Please?

[brucemillar]

So, today we dropped the front diff and opened it up (see pics). What we see is a box of broken bits, smashed up gears and stripped spline shafts along with busted up inner casing. Oh there is some heavy duty paste, which in another life would have been used as diff oil.

What a mess.

So no we are refitting the replacement diff that came from eBay /Lithuania all the way to little old me in the UK.

We are feeling good so far and hope to update tonight saying that all is good and we are back & running smoothly again.

If anybody wants to purchase a cast metal bin full of crushed up bearings and fragments of shrapnel? Just drop me a note.




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[amancuso]

That looks horrific!

[Victorious4.8is]

OMG! Do you think all of this internal damage was a result of trying to get the shaft out or was there already some internal damage happening prior to trying to remove the shaft?

Glad your getting it worked out though!

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

Wife just pointed out "well we are famous for cheese" and though CA makes more dairy now, wisconsin will always be 'america's dairyland' and it's awesome to be able to go to a store and buy 8 year old cheddar.

Along with squeaky curds, I'm quite fond of the Sheboygan Coney up there.

[andrewwynn]

That damage had to be from internal self destruct.(you can see rotational damage). I think the difficulty in removing the CV was a symptom not the cause. The paste not liquid is the clue (also completely dry gears).

So as costly as it was, evidence indicates that dif was shot and had the CV come out, you'd have set yourself up for the dif blowing apart at speed on the highway.

Blessing in disguise.

[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by Overboost

Along with squeaky curds, I'm quite fond of the Sheboygan Coney up there.

Squeaky are awesome. You can reset the squeak in a microwave! I was so happy to figure that out.

[brucemillar]

We are as sure as we can that the failure started with;

1) Diff oil leak
2) CV joint splitting
3) Diff running dry and exploding along with the CV shaft and slip-ring.

At the point of 3) we were always going to fail trying to remove the shaft. That was until we saw the excellent YouTube video on shocking it with a slide hammer & chain.

The diff is destroyed completely. Broken gears, internal mounts, gouging through lack of lubricant and eventual seizing.

Lucky it never let go at speed on the road.

All good now. Running like new with no noise, binding or leaks.

Thanks to all for your help.

Bruce




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