Did I ruin a CV? (pulled apart = vibration?)

[anothernord]

Last fall when I put in my "new" engine, We had trouble lining up the engine with the tranny, and long story short, the transmission ended up getting pushed sideways, pulling apart the passenger inner CV joint. We were able to pop it back in eventually.

I'm not sure if it is due to the engine, but ever since that whole install, there's been vibration in 4th gear at 30 mph or so, and on the highway around 65-70 mph. I've never taken apart the inner joint, so I'm not sure how it fits together. Could I have damaged eithe or both of the front CV's by pulling one apart, or compressing the other?

[Huffer]

Do you have a spare axle to throw in? Normally the axles would be connected last after the engine and trans are in and seated on their mounts. If the inner joint was popped out, then it may never have been reseated/pressed back in properly.

Also, it could be the driveshaft or a wheel balance issue.

[anothernord]

Thanks for the reply, Huff. I had left the CV axles attached to the transmission for convenience's sake I was considering putting in a NAPA or Cardone reman in today on the passenger side (the one that popped apart), but AFAIK, the driver's side could be fubar'd as well if it got squashed in the cup to hard or something.

It has done this with both of my sets of wheels, one of which were newly balanced, so I think I can rule that out.

[02_Legacy]

what do you mean by pull apart? The CV joints have normal play in them where they can go in and out with out damaging them. However they should return to a centered position by themselves, if the joint came out and stayed out then yes there is a problem, there is a retainer that should keep everything together to prevent that from happening.

[anothernord]

So, the boot was stretched all the way out and I could feel the bearings through the boot. So yeah, it pulled completely apart, internally anyway.

I guess that means I should replace that side!

[02_Legacy]

not saying that is your vibration problem, but that should not be able to happen and should be replaced.

[anothernord]

Well, I swapped out that CV for a junkyard OEM ($25). The one I took out looks to be a remanufactured or aftermarket (cups aren't green), and it had a significant amount of axial slop in it. The OEM guy was totally tight.

The vibration didn't really go away, but I still have the other side to replace before I make a verdict.