The front left half shaft is clicking and want to DIY it

derry

I got a 99 Nizzan Almera with the left side half shaft which clicks sometimes in right turns on roundabouts

First Question is how long will it last can I get another 2000 miles out of before it breaks I dont have time to DIY it until I have done my ~2000 miles travel for the next few weeks .Normally my travel inst much but this next few weeks got extra stuff to do

I went into motor factors and they say the Knuckle joint by itself is some €45 euros

i went to to scrap years and they will both sell me the half shafts with all the bits on for ~€40

Now I have reasonable tool kit spanners wrenches so forth and even tourgue wrench

What is the advantage or disadvantage to just buy the knuckle joint new solo without the haf shaft parts . Is it some case its is a night mare to take apart and out together again and forget it and go for the full ready to do unit instead .

Is second hand half shaft waste of money.

Also never did half shaft is it easy enough for DIY or do you need special pullers or anything fancy as will be doing it on outside of the road outside my flat in Dublin with few breeze blocks and car jack to keep car from falling on me .

If it mega difficult will get the local back street garage near the royal canal to do it for me they are good prices but times are getting harder so need to save money if possible with DIY .

Derry

colm_mcm

Moved from projects

CJhaughey

Easy job, remove the hub nut, might need a breaker bar and a bit of pipe plus someone to hold the brakes on.
Once the hubnut is off, undo the Bottom balljoint nut and break that free.
This will allow the whole strut assembly to be pulled off the driveshaft.
Once you have the strut away, undo the larger strap on inner joint boot and slide the whole driveshaft out of the tripod joint.
You may want to put a plastic bag over the joint to stop all the grease running out of the cup.
Once the shaft is out, undo the circlip at the tripod joint and remove from the shaft.
Take the two boots off the shaft and remove the CV joint by either grinding and hammering or you can try putting the shaft into a pipe and slamming it on the floor to separate the shaft from the CV.
You can buy a whole driveshaft for small money these days as you said, the only thing is that it might have big miles on it already and give trouble.
The inside joint doesn't give trouble usually just the outer CV joint.
If you are going that far it might be worth fixing the outer and new boots on both.
I bought a CV for 12.99stg+P+P from from JandRCVjoints.co.uk
Did over 70k miles before it needed replacing, thats cheap motoring.

derry

@CJhaughey

Thx

I will go for it then hopefully this weekend failing that next weekend


yes this car with 160k miles just bought last week for couple hundred euros is probably on second set of CV joints or 80,000 miles per cv joint


Derry

Chimaera

For the sake of your health, use something other than breeze blocks to support the car while you're working on it. They have a habit of crumbling under the loads imposed by a car. Jackstands and wheel chocks are less than €50 a set and worth the investment if you plan to work regularly on your car.

derry

@Chimaera
Sorry might have used the wrong name for them breeze blocks .
These are the solid type made from concrete which are back up in case the car falls down from the other stuff like wheels and wood I normally use .

I would never use the hollow type they fall to pieces

Trouble for me is that everything has to live in the car like car tools as the apartment is share and room there is very tight .

The housing estate where apartment is is littered with big planks of wood some broken cars with wheels and tires stacked all over and solid concrete blocks .

I just dont have room in such a small car for the car stands unless there exists fold flat type .I looked the car shop the other day fpr the car stands but they are fully made up you cant fold them down.
Two of the car would take all the boot space and some .
They car stands would have to live on the roof rack and around here they wouldn't last squat time if they were visible on roof .
Around here new cars dont last squat time and even old bangers like this with 99 plates can take a walk even i chain the wheels and the rest .
So to keep losses to minim bought the cheapest car and hopefully they wont rob it .

Derry

tom_tarbucket

derry wrote: »

@Chimaera
Sorry might have used the wrong name for them breeze blocks .
These are the solid type made from concrete which are back up in case the car falls down from the other stuff like wheels and wood I normally use .

I would never use the hollow type they fall to pieces

Trouble for me is that everything has to live in the car like car tools as the apartment is share and room there is very tight .

The housing estate where apartment is is littered with big planks of wood some broken cars with wheels and tires stacked all over and solid concrete blocks .

I just dont have room in such a small car for the car stands unless there exists fold flat type .I looked the car shop the other day fpr the car stands but they are fully made up you cant fold them down.
Two of the car would take all the boot space and some .
They car stands would have to live on the roof rack and around here they wouldn't last squat time if they were visible on roof .
Around here new cars dont last squat time and even old bangers like this with 99 plates can take a walk even i chain the wheels and the rest .
So to keep losses to minim bought the cheapest car and hopefully they wont rob it .

Derry

sounds like you live in a nice area )

derry

tom_tarbucket wrote: »

sounds like you live in a nice area )

I think they call it Dublin
Hope the car survives the 31st

Limerick is worse went for funeral in mY Suzuki 98 swift few years back and they stole that burnt it out

In Dublin they generally wouldn't stoop so low to steal such a boring granny mobile but in Limerick they steal everything on wheels

Ha ha

Derry

tom_tarbucket

derry wrote: »

I think they call it Dublin
Hope the car survives the 31st

Limerick is worse went for funeral in mY Suzuki 98 swift few years back and they stole that burnt it out

In Dublin they generally wouldn't stoop so low to steal such a boring granny mobile but in Limerick they steal everything on wheels

Ha ha

Derry

ha ha

Jaysus, I dunno what kind of places you do be hanging out at ))

Chimaera

Any concrete blocks are a risk when you're working under a car. The weight of the car usually ends up coming down onto them through the sill which can generate more than enough pressure to split the block in half, not unlike how a block layer uses a chisel to cut them when building.

blackbox

Regarding how long it will last, first ensure that the rubber boot isn't torn to shreds letting lots of dirt in. If it's OK and if you don't put too much strain on it (i.e. only apply power when wheels are pointing straight ahead) you will have a good chance of getting the 2000 miles out of it.