khat toy

so i'm rebuilding the front end (ball joints, wheel bearings, shocks, idler arm, various bushings) and i've got the hub and everything out of the way and i've noticed that there is about a half inch of play between the inner end of the half shaft and the axle housing, ie the half shaft will pull away from the axle housing... is this normal, or am i missing a gasket/in need of a rebuild of some sort? any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

iamsuperbleeder

there might be a little play; that's just the nature of the CV's in the setup... as long as it's not all loosey-goosey and flopping around, I'd say it's normal and you're good

khat toy

ok, cool. i wasn't sure, and i didn't want to put it all back together just to have to rip it back apart to fix something else.

TOYOTA 1

there's some brash bushings inside there, sometimes they go bad. but like bleeder said, if its not flopping its probably ok.

iamsuperbleeder

I think he's talking about the play that the center shaft in between the CV joints has; how it can move in and out of the joints (which it does as the suspension cycles)

not play in the spindle area

khat toy

this is where i mean - the half shaft slides away from the housing, maybe about 1/4 inch back and forth. there is a little play where the shaft comes out of the spindle, but everything there looks ok.

iamsuperbleeder

ooooh, the actual flange that the CV bolts to along with the axle shaft pulls away from the axle housing about 1/4 inch?

khat toy

yea, the whole thing, flange and boot, pulls away from the housing, not alot, but maybe 1/4 inch, and i can't tell if grease came out or if there should be any in there - it was like this when i got it.... sorry it's blurry, i took 'em with my phone...

iamsuperbleeder

hmmmm

I see what you're talking about now, but I cannot remember taking a note of any slack or movement mine had when I had my IFS tore down...

I'm sure some play is feasible, but just how much, I'm not sure

khat toy

yea, i never really did front end work on my '86, so i never noticed if there was play there. it doesn't move if if she put together and sitting flat, but when the wheel is off the ground, there's definitely play, on the passenger side, too. since this outside my experience, i thought i'd try for some feedback. thanks for your input, tho! i'd like to get her back together tomorrow, so hopefully i can get more confirmation that a little play is ok?

khat toy

any other opinions/input? i really like to fix her if she needs it...

87blackbeauty

I see that this is an old thread, but I also have a question pertaining to this. Should there be any up and down play in the axle shaft? Because if I grab the inner cv and move it up and down, the whole axle shaft moves around where it goes into the differential. (The section pointed out above) I'd assume that it isn't supposed to, but I have no manual to tell me otherwise.