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92 brunmby. While driving to work my car decided that no gears will be bothered working. There was a sound of grinding just before this. I decided to pull up the 4x4 lever to see iff it would work and yes it did , i limped it home and am now writing this.... Any of you boffins know what this is?:)

Hopefully it isn't something inside the gearbox. Best to rule out other more minor things first.
Seeing as it works in 4x4 but not front wheel drive, it's quite possible there is something busted in one of your front driveshafts or hubs.
With somebody in the driver's seat, idle the engine, put it in gear and release the clutch (carefully). At the same time have a look in the engine bay, look down at the front drive shafts left and right. Normally they should both be spinning and one of them should be driving a front wheel and the car should be moving. In this case I'd bet that either an Inner CV, or an outer CV might be broken - should be able to tell by looking at what is moving and what isn't. It also could have stripped the splines within the wheel hub.

I'd rule that stuff out first before looking at anything more drastic.


***Naturally be careful. Don't stick your head under the wheel while the car is idling in gear, just incase the problem turns out to be intermittent and it suddenly decides to drive!

Could it be the 4wd selector not all the way locked into 2wd?

Andrew T. I just took your advice. I have noticed that the right c.v is free spinning. what does this mean?

the right CV is spinning freely

a couple of questions

1. is the whole shaft from castlelation nut to where it mounts to the gearbox spinning?

or

2. is the inner spinning on the shaft and not the outer?

if it is question 1 then you have destroyed a hub (my guess from reading the thread)

if 2 then the outer CV has imploded and is making metal mince inside the boot

the usual fix is to replace the hub by undoing the castlelation nut and undoing the 4 bolts which hold the hub on and replacing it then tighten everything up again

if the shaft has pooped itself then the shaft replacement or CV replacement is the option

I hope it is the hub as they take way less time to replace

TOONGA

Have seen this before on a newly installed madeinchina Cv shaft on a subie, cv balls flew out everywhere, snapped off cleanly resulting in no drive at 110 kph when it occured just cruising. Left owner stranded on highway midle of nowhere at 4 am. On return with tow truck driver the towie shoved her into 4WD and up she drove. Another cheapie shaft replacement and some cash to apease . Was final straw for owner with subies. SOLD. Only to get an L Series with more CV woes

This happened on my bro's car. post 30 page 3
showthread.php?t=15121&page=3

The right inner c.v is free spinning, but it is not spinning the outer..???

Ok so the inner spins does the shaft spin with it or is it stationary like the outer.

if the shaft and inner spin then the outer is detroyed ,if the inner is spinning on its own then the inner is destroyed. the easy way to find out is to pull the shaft out and put another one in or rebuild the one you have with new parts

TOONGA

That means that inner CV is either broken or dislocated. It may just need popping back into position, the large snap-ring may have given way, or just needs replacing.
You will need to disconnect the shock absorber from the hub, allowing the hub to flop down. This will allow you to pull the inner CV off the side of the gearbox - you will need to remove the pin that goes through the stub axel first though (use a 6.5mm or 6mm pin punch - or a medium screwdriver with the end cut off).
Once the shaft is off the gearbox you should be able to pull the CV boot back and have a look inside to see what's going on.
Easiest solution is to just buy an entire replacement driveshaft for that side of the car and slap it in. It will definitely solve your problem.

**edit - Toonga is correct there. I forgot to consider whether the driveshaft in the middle is spinning. My diagnosis assumes it is not. If the driveshaft itself is spinning then it's the outer CV that's broken instead.

Either way replacing the whole driveshaft will fix the problem the most reliably, just not quite the cheapest. Definitely the easiest!

Lets see if you can park it, put handbrake on, put it in first gear, get someone to jump on brakes while you apply 36mm socket to nut of suspect wheel axle and see if you can undo nut. If shaft is broken somewhere being in gear will not help hold it while you stand on socket bar.

Might be just the small circlip on the end of the shaft was not put on properly or broke.
The inner race of the doj then just falls off the end of the shaft.

I have seen this happen up at cooktown on the way to cape york!

We had to weld the inner race to the shaft as the end of the shaft was damaged and the circlip would not go back on.

sheezuz boys...its obvious the cv is stuffed. Pull it out and disassemble it. Youll see very quickly if its broken or just dislocated. Doubt its dislocated. Id say its broken.

The car is fine to drive around in rwd until you fix it.

Either get a new joint or a whole shaft (recommended if theyre getting quite old) Shaft is way easier to change, but a tad more expensive, should be able to pick an entire shaft up for around or under 200 bux.

this happend to mums L seires.
was the splines in the hub i think, drive shafts turned but wheels didnt.

drove it home in 4wd but we had all the gears as well

I spoke to Subanoob all fixed he replaced the whole shaft all good it was the inner cup

Jan