Replacing Rear Drive Shaft CV Joint

[cali1]

X5 2005 4.4i

About a year ago I barrelled down my neighborhood street with about 3-4 feet of snow. I was jamming the the transmission from drive to reverse, the X5 is a beast. Now a year or two later jumped in started and gave gas, but gears would only engage after a few seconds delay and turning the steering wheel straight. If I turned the steering wheel left or right, it would not move at all. Looked under the car while the wife put in drive with breaks on and the rear drive shaft was spinning but the wheels were not moving (breaks on). Reverse, same thing. After some analysis, I discovered the front wheels were the only power propelling the truck.

I ripped out torque converter, dissected and it looked fine. Replaced the fluids in the tranny, front differential and same symptoms.

Put all fours in the air and spinning the rear wheels did nothing on the opposing side. So i decided the rear differential had failed.

So I removed the rear differential and rear shaft and found that the shaft was weird. There is a CV joint on the Drive Shaft that connects to the Rear Differential. This CV joint would rotate a bit then get stuck. Almost as if some of the bearings were broken. Coupling my hand over the end of the shaft over the cap then rotating within the pivotal range would cause the cv joint to get stuck. Thats when it all made sense. For about a year, I'd been hearing a loud bang/thump while driving that must have been the shaft getting locked up then snapping out of this lock.

I'll post pictures.

I'm assuming the rear diff is failing intermittently also.

So my question is how does one go about rebuilding the CV Joint on this shaft. I see the part is available for purchase, but how to get the old one off and the new one on? I've removed the clip locking the boot sleeve, but upon trying to yank the CV Joint off, doesn't seem to budge, don't want to destroy without knowing its indeed bad.

Also, is it possible to rebuild the rear differential, although I'll probably just buy one from a junkyard. Haven't seen much of these fail on 2005 X5's.
I've been tempted to just fix the drive shaft and put the same differential in.
But the prospect of having to pull this monstrosity out again kinda scares me. I don't have another week to kill.

Thanks in advance. Will post pics for illustration.

[cali1]

I was just able to hammer out the bolts then pry open the Constant-velocity joint wth knurled bush. Item 17:


There was a similar post on a thread regarding front drive shaft. The poster mentioned having gone through very similar steps at finally arriving the conclusion it was his rear shaft const velocity joint.

But I suspect mine might require the rear differential. Weird cause seemed broken when connected to the wheels, but on the work bench it seems fine. Is there a clutch pack in there that can be purchased and replaced?

[davintosh]

So, you've got the driveshaft off of the diff, and the end of the CV joint rotates independently of the driveshaft?

I've got a Bentley manual, and here are the steps it says are needed to replace that CV joint:

• Remove rear driveshaft.
• Clean grease off CV joint. Remove retaining circlip from CV joint end of driveshaft.
• Drive out bolts from CV joint.
• Remove CV joint from driveshaft.
  • - pry back protective boot.
  • - Using BMW special tool 26 1 070 or 26 1 110 on inner race, press or pull joint off shaft.
• Check protective boot for damage. Replace if necessary.
• Install new CV joint:
  • Working from both sides of joint, inject approximately 80 grams of CV joint grease into joint.
  • Install new sealing gasket on joint face that mates with protective boot.
  • Seal fits in groove on outer race of joint.
  • Clean grease off driveshaft and mating splines on joint.
  • Apply Loctite 648 to driveshaft splines.
  • Press new CV joint on shaft as far as it will go.
  CAUTION - ONLY PRESS ON INNER CV JOINT RACE!
• Install new retaining circlip to end of driveshaft.
• Insert CV joint mounting bolts. Be sure to reuse washers.
• Install driveshaft

Wow; after typing all that up, I do a Google search for one of the tools mentioned, and look what comes up:

BMW Workshop Manuals > X Series E53 X5 4.4i (M62) OFFRD > 2 Repair Instructions > 26 Propeller Shaft > 11 Propeller Shaft Assembly > 4 RA Replacing Constant-velocity Joint For Propeller Shaft > Page 1027

That online service manual ought to get you through it. :up:

[cali1]

Thats awesome. Thanks very much.

Hard to describe, but no the cv joint doesn't spin independently of the shaft but rather it seems to lock-up while I manually rotate the axis of the pivot, always at the same spot. Just took it apart and not sure but I think there may have been a loose bearing. Can't really tell cause they kinda fell out a few at a time. Didn't spend a lot of time on it tonight but weird that I couldn't put the bearings back in. Might be an indication its bad cause the bearings came out easily.

Will replace with a new CV Joint. Thanks for the instructions, seems pretty easy. Just worried that my differential may be bad, but on the bench seems ok. Any ideas on how to tell a bad differential on a work bench ? I worry that if its the slipping mechanism I cannot reproduce without reinstalling in order to drive enough force to stress test. The oil was not burnt but did have typical metal shavings I found TC, front diff and tranny. front diff was the darkest by far. Even worse yet, that if the CV Joint was indeed bad and those instances where the loud bang was observer, it may have caused damage up and downstream, anything and everything. Only heard this about three or four times. But if I remember correctly I heard this the last time I drove it.

[cali1]

Thinking out loud, my rear diff is definitely bad. The rear drive shaft spins, the cv joint is bad but that wouldn't affect the ability to spin the diff, it might break the diff but would still spin. It was probably jolting the the diff when it hit that dead pivot zone on the cv joint.

The front wheel drive works.
The tranny is good; shifts through all the gears (in front wheel drive). TC is good; kicks in the front wheel drive and the rear shaft spins.
I recently replaced the TC actuator wheel (thanks forum) cause of the dreaded noise when placed into park. Reason I mention this is cause now every time I put into park I hear that sound again, even with the new wheel (worked until now). Thats probably cause it would be equivalent to place the car in park while moving. Since the rear shaft will not engage with the wheels, the shaft continues to spin because the rear wheel breaks can't lock the rear drive shaft due to this faulty disengagement. hence I deduct must be the rear drive shaft.