2004 XC90 2.5T AWD Broken CV Axle

[TS Nac]

Bit of a mess. Driver side CV axle broke at splines inside transmission. Apparently there is an expanding ring in this aw50/51 awd transmission intended to hold the CV axle in place. Boy does it do a good job. having trouble removing the remaining shaft piece. was considering tapping the shaft and "building" a puller to try to remove the shaft. Any alternatives? Can the axle be drive out from the other side?

[Ou2mame]

I would try to tap and pull it.. Seems like the smartest way to go. Sorry about your hassle though I can imagine how frustrating it is

[TS Nac]

I agreed with your assessment Ou2mamae. Already tapped the shaft. Built puller from 3/8 bolt, nuts, and large heavy washers. After some high torque effort, the bolt snapped. Even after all of that, I can still easily wiggle the shaft piece inside the trans. Effort No. 2 is to use a die cutter setup to remove enough of the shaft to get to the expanding ring. The wheel well of my Swedish piece of yard art is becoming my second home. Here's hoping for a change of venue.

[Ou2mame]

Wow that's crazy. Can you cut a slit in the bolt and remove it, and then use a hardened steel bolt and rig a slide hammer to it?

[TS Nac]

2nd attempt started pulling the bearing sleeve out. Which, looking at it closely, means that the internal part of the trans are pushing out the bearing sleeve. That equals new trans. So I decided to try to cut the shaft out using a die grinder type cutter. Wow what a process. Short story, about 95% of the shaft is out. I can see the expanding ring that is apparently welded to to the internal transmission shaft. Cant even drive it out with a punch. Although, I did manage to get few little pieces of the ring out. Think I'm resigned to the fact that the trans will have to come out. So much for the "easy" route. More than likely something is broken in the trans anyway based on the damage to the shaft. T

[Ou2mame]

Well that's certainly a bummer.

[precopster]

If it's just the narrow part of the splined shaft it will come out the other side by pushing it out past the angle gear. Of course you need to remove the other CV shaft. There is no notch inside the angle gear designed to keep a clip so it should slide right out.

[FREE-PPV]

Anyone ever have just the tip of driver side axle break off at clip groove, was lucky enough to pull clip out with spring hook, and the end of axle came out with magnet. It was a flimsy tip with a hole in middle as if screw was used to keep end with spline onto axle. It was so stupid to see these little cap on end of axle, my BMW is solid axle where clip goes in, so axle backed out and left me stranded facing $200. tow over stupid broken tip of axle, and yes, it is Volvo axle, but I think these made in China axles look more solid. Anyone have this happen to them?

[commander7red]

Yes, I have. On my 2002 XC70. Right off even with the transmission case. I drilled a hole back into the shaft about an inch or inch and a half, then used a thread tap to tap the hole for a bolt. I took a piece of black iron pipe with the inside diameter a little larger than the shaft (Don't remember this size right off the top of my head) so that it would press against the casing (or bearing). The pipe was I think about an inch or so long. I sprayed some PB Blaster around the broken shaft. Then I got a bolt to screw into the threaded hole in the shaft, put a washer on it, (So that it rested on top of the pipe) then tightened down on the bolt. When it got fairly tight, I hit the end of the bolt with a hammer, then tightened a little more. I did this until if popped loose. I think I used a 1/2" bolt. When I put my new one back in, I brushed the splines with anti seize stuff.