driving with half a CV?

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blackened_offroad

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yo. So I broke my driver side CV joint offroading here in Moab. I then drove the 60+ miles out of the remote canyon I was in with no issues. just kept it in 2wd, and put in 4x3 only if I got really stuck. Is it possible to pull the diff side of the CV axle and leave the wheel side and drive like that? I know you can do it on some older trucks, but you have to leave the wheel end attached or the wheel bearing will fall apart and you'll lose your wheel going down the road.

anything specific to 5th gens that will make this not work?
 
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if you broke the cv, why not just cut it very close to the hub so it can still be driven. having a picture would be better though.

blackened_offroad said:
yo. So I broke my driver side CV joint offroading here in Moab. I then drove the 60+ miles out of the remote canyon I was in with no issues. just kept it in 2wd, and put in 4x3 only if I got really stuck. Is it possible to pull the diff side of the CV axle and leave the wheel side and drive like that? I know you can do it on some older trucks, but you have to leave the wheel end attached or the wheel bearing will fall apart and you'll lose your wheel going down the road.

anything specific to 5th gens that will make this not work?
Click to expand...
 
blackened_offroad said:
yo. So I broke my driver side CV joint offroading here in Moab. I then drove the 60+ miles out of the remote canyon I was in with no issues. just kept it in 2wd, and put in 4x3 only if I got really stuck. Is it possible to pull the diff side of the CV axle and leave the wheel side and drive like that? I know you can do it on some older trucks, but you have to leave the wheel end attached or the wheel bearing will fall apart and you'll lose your wheel going down the road.

anything specific to 5th gens that will make this not work?
Click to expand...

If you pull the CV axle out of the front differential, you will loose oil from the differential and get dirt into it. Could ruin the differential.

"4X3" as you call it, will not really work that way unless you have a front differential lock. I thought only the Off Road and Pro had differential lock, but only on the rear, but I could be wrong.
 
Now I've only helped 4Runner/Tacoma friends so my memory might be a bit rusty, but isn't the diff side of the CV axle splined into the diff? If so, then leaving it a gaping hole might allow dirt and grime to get in along with fluid out.

I'm curious as well in a trail fix like you're looking for.

EDIT: I was too slow, someone said the same thing above me.
 
I assume you mean gutting the tulip out of the cup on the differential side and leaving the cup portion still splined into the axle?

That's doable. But as stated earlier, you'll want to cut the axle near the hub end because you need that to keep the bearing together and pre-loaded. I would not recommend the old "washers and a big bolt" method for anything other than towing/driving a vehicle across the parking lot.
 
What part broke? Did you blow up the bell - outer or inner?, snap the shaft?, or snap the inner star? If you have complete outer bell or enough left to hold the wheel bearing together, you could remove the shaft from the inner joint leaving only the bell in place on the inner (differential) side and the remains of the broken bell on the outer (wheel bearing/hub) side.

You could drive that way as long as you don't try to run at speed in 4wd. If you do the loose inner bell will wobble unbalanced and cause problem. I don't think it'll be an issue in 2wd at all. It shouldn't spin at all in that situation, even at highway speed.

But if you're going to strip it all apart somewhere in Moab - I think you can find a spare axle at a parts store. If you really need it - I have a couple spare axles in SLC area. I'll loan you one and you can send it back when you swap it out to a new one. I'm not sure how I'd get them to you though. I don't plan to go down to Moab until sometime late april.
 
fwiw I found a replacement at oreillys for $125 and swapped it in. it's noisier than the OEM one, so I'd like to swap it back to OEM or an upgraded one sooner than later.
 
Jetboy said:
What part broke? Did you blow up the bell - outer or inner?, snap the shaft?, or snap the inner star? If you have complete outer bell or enough left to hold the wheel bearing together, you could remove the shaft from the inner joint leaving only the bell in place on the inner (differential) side and the remains of the broken bell on the outer (wheel bearing/hub) side.

You could drive that way as long as you don't try to run at speed in 4wd. If you do the loose inner bell will wobble unbalanced and cause problem. I don't think it'll be an issue in 2wd at all. It shouldn't spin at all in that situation, even at highway speed.
Click to expand...

So hypothetical here, let's say a CV grenaded itself. Tore the inner and outer bells or something.

If we kept a spare inner/outer bell with us that we could just pop into the hub/diff that would help hold the hub bearing together and keep fluid from gushing from the diff.

But nothing's holding them in right? Differential might not spin, but would the hub bell?

Just curious as a possible trail spare/bandaid idea.
 
grizzlypath said:
So hypothetical here, let's say a CV grenaded itself. Tore the inner and outer bells or something.

If we kept a spare inner/outer bell with us that we could just pop into the hub/diff that would help hold the hub bearing together and keep fluid from gushing from the diff.

But nothing's holding them in right? Differential might not spin, but would the hub bell?

Just curious as a possible trail spare/bandaid idea.
Click to expand...

Basically, yeah it should work. The inner side has a snap ring that will keep it in place. The outer has hub bolt. The only thing you can't do like that is go fast in 4x4 or do this at speed in a limited. The free bell in the diff at highway speed will probably wobble enough to cause problems. The little needle bearing isn't enough to stabilize it if it's unbalanced.

But... It you're going to carry those parts - might as well just keep a full spare axle assembly. They're not very expensive. I have a couple, but never needed to use them. They're the same on both sides, so one spare covers either side failure. I only have 2 because I had a cheap aftermarket one and then picked up an oem ones later. But even the $50 aftermarket one would be fine to get off the trail.
 
Don't Need a Spare CV - Need a Spare Tie Rod

Cost, size/weight, mess and the ability to limp out on 1/2 a CV is why I convinced myself that I don't need a spare CV.
That said - I'm East Coast and generally only a hour+ away from a decent enough fire road at any time.

I am going to start carrying spare tie rods though.
Not too big or messy and I've unknowingly damaged those on a couple solo trips.
Hard to limp out of anything without steering.
 
Rip out the shaft itself, or pieces of if you’ve broke it. Shove a rag in either cup and tape it up — or sling grease everywhere. Yes, leave the wheel side in unless you want your tire to fall off.

It’ll get you to safety. I drove about 25 miles at highway speed like that.
 
I agree, this is the right thing to do here. leave the wheel side in and cut the axle closes to the boot to avoid the axle from flapping around. Also, you need to bring a metal saw, the manual one.

PK930 said:
Rip out the shaft itself, or pieces of if you’ve broke it. Shove a rag in either cup and tape it up — or sling grease everywhere. Yes, leave the wheel side in unless you want your tire to fall off.

It’ll get you to safety. I drove about 25 miles at highway speed like that.
Click to expand...
 
cbielat said:
What exactly broke? Or was it just a torn cv boot?
Click to expand...

the outer/wheel side joint shattered and threw the balls everywhere. I was offroading in Moab and trying to get past a very difficult obstacle. I was very stuck, was giving it gentle throttle, it started to move, so I got optimistic and gave it more throttle. = broken axle.

a lot of responders apparently haven't read the OP or my follow-ups, but... I drove 45 miles of legit gnarly offroading and then 70 miles of pavement with the axle broken. The axle was still together, it just didn't have the balls in it to drive the wheel, so it just spun inside the joint. It was fine. I bought a new one from Oreillys and threw it in on the sidewalk. It has more play in it than the OEM one did, which is annoying, but it's fine. I've driven at least 2k miles on the Oreillys one with no issues.
 
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blackened_offroad said:
the outer/wheel side joint shattered and threw the balls everywhere. I was offroading in Moab and trying to get past a very difficult obstacle. I was very stuck, was giving it gentle throttle, it started to move, so I got optimistic and gave it more throttle. = broken axle.

a lot of responders apparently haven't read the OP or my follow-ups, but... I drove 45 miles of legit gnarly offroading and then 70 miles of pavement with the axle broken. The axle was still together, it just didn't have the balls in it to drive the wheel, so it just spun inside the joint. It was fine. I bought a new one from Oreillys and threw it in on the sidewalk. It has more play in it than the OEM one did, which is annoying, but it's fine. I've driven at least 2k miles on the Oreillys one with no issues.
Click to expand...

Did you have Atrac or other systems on when the CV grenaded?
 
blackened_offroad said:
the outer/wheel side joint shattered and threw the balls everywhere. I was offroading in Moab and trying to get past a very difficult obstacle. I was very stuck, was giving it gentle throttle, it started to move, so I got optimistic and gave it more throttle. = broken axle.

a lot of responders apparently haven't read the OP or my follow-ups, but... I drove 45 miles of legit gnarly offroading and then 70 miles of pavement with the axle broken. The axle was still together, it just didn't have the balls in it to drive the wheel, so it just spun inside the joint. It was fine. I bought a new one from Oreillys and threw it in on the sidewalk. It has more play in it than the OEM one did, which is annoying, but it's fine. I've driven at least 2k miles on the Oreillys one with no issues.
Click to expand...

Sounds good. Yeah, definitely keep extra parts on hand. Easy enough to switch it out.
 
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