It just has to misbehave

[foreverska]

So I was driving to work this morning and I got out on the highway and got up to cruising but then the engine started free revving mixed with a little power making it down but a terrible noise. I got it towed home. I started the car up, into first and slowly let out the clutch and it went nowhere. After a second I realized the fact that I was now idling in first in gear. Then I saw this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPkPtBk ... e=youtu.be
The other axle does not spin while this is happening. If I roll the car with the engine off the axle spins with the tire. So STF, put your bets on the table. What is it? I took a guess at that CV joint catastrophically failing and ordered new axles.

[Piledriver]

If that's what your car is doing... I would have bought two joints, perhaps 4.

If one went it's 3 brothers friends will likely follow it soon...
(nevermind, you ordered 2 axles, same effect, but might want to keep the OG axles)

[helowrench]

take the hubcap off, and look at the axle nut in the same situation. Is the axle nut turning?

I just looked at the video on fullscreen, and it appears that the CV outer is turning.
(the outer CV is pinned with the CV bolts into the stubshaft.)

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I've seen the splines on the brake drum strip out like that, the stub axle break/fail and other fun things. CVs failing like that I would expect you would have gotten some noise out of them. It had to be a weird situation for sure.

Lee

[dlamyle]

I agree on the CV failure but I wonder if that engine flopping all over the place had anything to do with it. Maybe time for some new trans mounts as well?

[foreverska]

...OG axles)

They look replaced. The inside boots look pristine somehow but the outsides are pretty rough.

I just looked at the video on fullscreen, and it appears that the CV outer is turning.

They are. I'll give the axle nut a look tomorrow in the light of day. If it is I'm looking at splines aren't I? Without spindles the axle shouldn't turn with the tire when you roll the car should it? It seems like it just jumps out under power.

I've seen the splines on the brake drum strip out like that, the stub axle break/fail and other fun things. CVs failing like that I would expect you would have gotten some noise out of them. It had to be a weird situation for sure.

Yea it seemed just sort of out of the blue but the whole car is just so noisy and my hearing isn't that great that the CV might have been complaining for months. I knew it when it broke though because it sounded like a really bad exhaust leak. When I started slowing down real bad but the engine freely revved then I knew it wasn't exhaust but my first guess was clutch cause it could kinda slip it a bit just enough to get into a parking lot. It wasn't until the tow guy was loading it up and I heard scraping coming from the driver rear tire that I thought it was the cv/axle.

I agree on the CV failure but I wonder if that engine flopping all over the place had anything to do with it. Maybe time for some new trans mounts as well?

It is definitely time. I'm not sure if that flopping around did it in because it's smoother once it warms into it's higher idle but it is still time. While it's out I need to attack the clutch/flywheel. Hmm... I recently bought a trans jack, maybe that's a sign.

[Marc]

Let me sort this out. We're trying to make a long-distance diagnosis of the problem your car has by viewing a video of someone else's car which you think has the same problem?
Seems rather futile to me.

Going back to YOUR symptoms, the intermittent power transmission and horrendous noises would be consistent with a broken CV joint. If the splines strip in the drum, it's pretty much a 100% fail without much noise...although it's typically preceded by a creaking sound for hundreds and hundreds of miles before the splines in the drum finally turn to dust.
CV joints usually give plenty of warning too, although it's most often in the form of knocking noises when making low speed turns or as you roll up to a stop.

If an inner CV grenades it usually damages the "dust cap" (rubber seal over the circlip that holds the drive flange on) so that needs to be replaced to keep gear lube from contaminating the grease in the new CV. Inner or outer, the flange tends to get beat up a bit by the shrapnel; more often than not it can still be made serviceable by smoothing off the raised areas with a pea-grinder (Dremel).

[foreverska]

This might be interesting... the discussion of the axle nut got to me so I went out and checked it. I popped off the hubcap and what did I find in the rim? Broken lock wire. Started the car up and the nut spins in gear. Upon closer inspection one of the crowns of the nut is covering the lock wire hole so it's obviously loosened a little bit. Think that's all it is? I really should be working and I don't have any wire or else I would do it now.

[foreverska]

We're trying to make a long-distance diagnosis of the problem your car has by viewing a video of someone else's car which you think has the same problem?

No, that's my car. I was so amused/frustrated by that sight I took a video.

[Piledriver]

At least you have some nice new axles to install, just need a new drum or two and perhaps outer seal...
Might be an opportune time to go rear discs

[Ol'fogasaurus]

This might be interesting... the discussion of the axle nut got to me so I went out and checked it. I popped off the hubcap and what did I find in the rim? Broken lock wire. Started the car up and the nut spins in gear. Upon closer inspection one of the crowns of the nut is covering the lock wire hole so it's obviously loosened a little bit. Think that's all it is? I really should be working and I don't have any wire or else I would do it now.

What you see is a trailing arm minus the brake drum and the brake shoes. The threaded part of the stub axle goes down to the splines the splines in the brake drum drive through. I caught one of my axle nuts loosening up but got to it before too much damage was done; The noise I got was a squeak... squeak... squeak every time the wheel rotated. The torque spec on the axle nut is roughly 250#s and some people like to go much higher.

[foreverska]

I didn't quite come up with that new drum implication at first but I guess y'all are right. The splines on it are probably toast now. I like pile's rear disc idea but I'm not sure my wallet agrees. It also needs to be on the road ASAP. I should save up the $800 and do all 4 corners with drop spindles up front though.

Edit:
I love my local autozone. They actually have a brake drum in stock. They had the brake light switches when I asked for them a few months back too. It's the weirdest thing.

[helowrench]

I didn't quite come up with that new drum implication at first but I guess y'all are right.

I have seen many more catastrophic, sudden drum failures than CV failures. Also, the failure warning for drums is a weird squeak that can be missed, whereas the CV will make a pretty nasty popping sound (like gangbangers with a .22lr under the car).

[Marc]

...Started the car up and the nut spins in gear. .

That's conclusive, the splines are stripped in the drum. The axle nut is supposed to be torqued to ~220 lb-ft, no cotter pin or lockwire can transmit the torque needed to drive the car for any useful distance. In truth, if the nut's torqued to spec the cotter pin isn't even necessary.

Because the drum is made of a softer, cast metal than the steel stub axle most of the damage occurs to the drum - but often the splines on the axle are also compromised some when driven loose for this long.
When you get the drum off, inspect the splines on the stub axle right at the inboard end...if there's a perceptible step between the last ~¼" that the drum never touched and the rest of the spline (run the tip of a small screwdriver along the splines to see if you can feel one) the axle is worn and should be replaced - another drum will be enough to get it back on the road, but if the fit is loose the new drum is more likely to work loose again (with the same eventual result).

[foreverska]

Alright so I pulled the drum out to realize the brakes were a bit on the low side and the cylinder was leaking a bit of fluid so I bought replacements and put them in today. I put my bleeder bottle on the new bleeder and pumped and pumped and pumped and got no fluid. Checked the reservoir and it was bone dry. Filled it up and pumped again, nothing. So I pulled the hardline off the back of the brake and there was a little fluid but not much. Pumped it lots of times and nothing came out. Disconnected the hardline and blew through it, fine. Pumped the brakes some more and still nothing. Put the hardline back on and put my vacuum bleeder on it. It builds pressure and holds it with no fluid coming out.

With a bone dry reservoir I almost definitely have a bubble in the master but I was expecting to suck it out with with vacuum. I fear with the vacuum holding pressure with that line something is wrong with that line (rear right bled fine). Is it possible it is still just a bubble in the master? I cant see how anything could have gotten in the lines (especially that would hold 25 inHg) or why they might have imploded. The lines on the master are gunked up real bad so I can't crack them (been applying various WDs and such all day). Maybe a power bleeder? I have a slight feeling anything I can buy around here wont have the right adapter for our reservoir cap though. Except for HFT's pneumatic bleeder but that's pull not push.

I wouldn't mind running a new brake lines if that didn't mean a new master too (since I can't remove the lines).