Backing out of the drive at the office on Xmas eve I heard a loud snapping sound from the right rear of the car. I managed to move the car forward a few meters and heard another snap though not as loud and decided that I probably shouldn’t try to continue without checking out the source of the noises.

Got underneath and found the outer, righthand side CV had come completely loose but with all six of the bolts still there.

Got it home on a flat bed, up the jack stands and dropped the axle to find 2 of the bolts had snapped off but only one of them with the broken end still in the drive flange.

Checked the other threads in the drive flange for damage and other than the one that has a piece of the bolt in it, one other thread is damaged. There is also a small burr on the recess in the drive flange where the paper gasket mounts between it and the CV.

I’m pretty sure the drive flange can be repaired but wanted confirmation on the removal procedure.

If I undo the big castle nut on the stub axle should I be able to drift the drive flange out through the back of the trailing arm and is re-intallation the drive flange the reverse?

Stubs are 911 5 lug and the drive flange is 6 bolt. I also have a spacer between the CV and the drive flange. The spacer is the outer ring of a CV and compensates for the difference between using the original 914 driveshafts.

I’ll post some pics later which should help. Thanks.

Mine comes out with just a couple hits with a dead blow hammer (castle nut removed first).

Yes you can remove the drive shaft after removing the castle nut. Clearance to the trans is tight. After assessing the damage and reinstalling the new parts make sure you use new Schnorr washers. Probable 10mm if you have the larger 911 CV's. A good trick is to put a dap of paint in the edge of the CV bolt to the flange to see if it is backing out. They probably got loose and fatigued.

It will be very difficult to remove either halfshaft without lowering the transaxle.
And removing the starter.

Seeing as you already dropped the axle, as you stated in your post (for those of us patient enough to read) it will simply be a few hits with a decent hammer to remove it.

Use blue locktite on the new bolts when you reassemble.
Make sure it is super clean, clean all the threads.

Rich

Do not move the car with the wheel on the ground, and axle out. You'll trash the bearing.

I would remove the output flange and chuck it in a lathe and make a cleanup cut on the face. When these things come loose, the surface is often a little messed up. Facing it will help insure the bolts don't work loose again. New washers are needed but will not guarantee they won't back out if the mating surfaces are not perfectly mated

I'm getting a chuckle out of the comments that a few hits with a dead blow hammer will
get the shaft out. I spent a couple of days with PB Blaster and hot wrench before the impact hammer got the castle nut off. I've yet to find the magic to get the splined shaft to come loose :^(

Hopefully, 2016 will be a new experience!

Gary

I got my castle nut off with a big impact gun. Then I wacked the end of the threads with my dead blow and it popped out.

Easy as pie.

I use a 3/4 breaker bar and a 2,4 or 6 foot pipe to crack the big nut. This will crack VW bug 36mm and 46mm bus axle nuts, the 914 big nut is nothing compared to them.
Warning... wheels have to be on the floor for this.

Hardest blow you can safely knock the stub or hub out with is a large brass drift and a BFH.
Big enough brass drift and you can use a sledge hammer, of course this would be a two guy job, but I've never ever had to go that far. The brass drift distorts, not the stub/hub.
Even the crustiest come out with that combo.

BTW use good judgment when doing above, even if your not damaging the hub you could start bending other shit, especially on a crusty car. Really it should start moving 1st/2nd blow with a BFH.

8 lbs sledge and a brass drift did nothing on one, though it did knock the other loose Yeah, I'm worried I'm going to knock the car clean off the jack stands. I wouldn't have said this car was crusty either. Spent all it's life in New Mexico and west Texas.

Gary

Well then...surprised the BFH and drift didn't knock it out.

Worst case scenario is to remove the whole trailing arm and have the hub, stub and/or bearing pressed out.

My version, albeit shown in the tightening mode.

Click to view attachment

Shouldn't be an issue if using a brass drift on a hardened axle shaft, but in general I like to leave the nut flush with the end of a shaft or stud when hammering the threaded end.

Leaving the nut on helps prevent the end of the shaft from mushrooming if the metal is soft, so you don't have to run a die over the threads later.

That's what I've done also. When you reinstall the axle, use some anti-seize on the axle splines ONLY. That way it should pop out easily the next time. The threads must be clean to properly torque the axle nut- usually 2 threads past the cotter key hole will bring it to torque specs if the proper wrench isn't available but I'd still have it checked as soon as possible.

Thanks for all the replies and advice, I’m off the jack stands and back on the road.

It was a lot easier than I thought would be. The hardest part was making the paper gasket accurately! The only other problem was lining up the bolt holes in the flange to the bolts in the CV. After frigging around for about an hour trying to get one in I had a brain wave and put the jack under the trailing arm and pumped it till the driveshaft was level and bingo it was buttoned up in minutes.

Thanks again.