Opinion on this driveshaft issue

The_Arbiter · 8 Sep 2024 at 13:55

Driveshaft

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.

imgur.com

Opposite wheel to the wheel/area in video has play in the wheel. Driveshaft moves about a centimeter on the wobbly wheel side, opposte side is shown in the video. Doesn't appear to be bearings.

Short video showing large movement in driveshaft, on the short side. I know nothing about cars, so asking for your knowledge here. Obviously broked i know. 20yr old Vauxhall Meriva so worth nothing.

Cheers

E: think it's the ball joint

E2: garage stuck it on the ramp and it's the track rod ball joint. But they it's so little hence why i couldn't notice it. But will get it done with the MOT

bobuk · 9 Sep 2024 at 09:28

Possible retaining circlip on driveshaft broken.

adam cool dude · 9 Sep 2024 at 09:59

The driveshaft needs to be able to move like that because of the range of motion of the suspension. It will never be a fixed length.

bobuk · 10 Sep 2024 at 08:50

That's a bit much, besides the drive shaft slides on the inner joint.

bobuk · 10 Sep 2024 at 08:53

The shaft is moving on the outer joint, that is to much movement, the inner joint provides the movement for the drive shaft.

The_Arbiter · 10 Sep 2024 at 09:10

bobuk said:
The shaft is moving on the outer joint, that is to much movement, the inner joint provides the movement for the drive shaft.

What do you mean by inner and outer? All i know is one side is short, the other is long. Cheers

pastymuncher · 10 Sep 2024 at 11:16

The driveshaft has splines on either end. The outer side goes into the wheel hub, the inner side goes into the gearbox.

adam cool dude · 10 Sep 2024 at 12:13

bobuk said:
That's a bit much, besides the drive shaft slides on the inner joint.

Depends on the design of the CV joint. Not all are the same. Some which use ball bearings in a cage and others which are roller bearings in a "socket". Those ones can have a bit of play in them and perfectly normal.

bobuk · 11 Sep 2024 at 10:25

adam cool dude said:
Depends on the design of the CV joint. Not all are the same. Some which use ball bearings in a cage and others which are roller bearings in a "socket". Those ones can have a bit of play in them and perfectly T

The outer and inner joints are 2 different joints, the outer joint (the one that goes in the outer hub)allows for the drive to be transmitted through the varying angles ie up and down movement and side to side movement (steering). The inner joint has a sliding movement to allow the drive shaft to move in and out to allow for suspension movement. They are both of different construction to achieve this operation. In the video you can plainly see the drive shaft (the long shaft going into the middle of the outer joint )moving in and out, this shaft is secured by a circlip attached to the shaft inside the joint.

Jonnycoupe · 12 Sep 2024 at 11:22

The half shaft has to be able to deal with plunge due to the front wheels going up and down, normally that just the inner joint to deal with, the outer joint has a wider range of angles so its better to control the joint centre. The outer birfield joint doesnt typically let the shaft move like that.

CV boot off i think and have a look, i would suspect the circlip has failed.