i'm having a few issues and i'm wondering if anyone knows what i should do. i have an 03 tiburon, its the 4 cylinder base model. I had a torn outer CV boot and dirt and grime got all into the joint and everything. So, i pulled out the axle and disassembled the joint. i cleaned it up put new grease in and replaced the boot and now the joint seems fine. but now i am having some issues putting everything back together.i haven't torqued anything down yet and i have pretty much have everything back together except for the lower arm assembly..but i'm stuck there. the bolt coming off of the lower ball joint wont line up with the slot on the bottom of the knuckle. i've tried releasing tension from the suspension every which way i could think of and i tried repositioning the hub assembly every possible way but nothing gets that bolt any closer to lining up. i'm wondering if maybe when i put the outer joint back together i didn't put the joint on the spindle far enough. but is that even possible? it seems solid the way it is.. if anyone has any insights or suggestions i would really appreciate it.

 

I've had mine apart about 5 times now, and I have to say I have to fight them from NOT going back together on contact. So you are saying the knuckle won't move toward the center of car to slip into place??? Well, either you didn't get the axle snapped back into place into the transaxle far enough, or you did something wrong and the axle is too long. What condition are the snap rings on the transaxle end?

 

^^^ I agree. It looks like the half-shaft is either not all the way into the trans, not all the way into the hub or too long.

 

i know that it is snapped into the transaxle far enough and that the hub is all the way on..that part was easy. so i probably messed it up when i put the outer joint back together. thanks for your input guys..

 

so i pulled the axle out again and took a closer look at the outer joint. it turns out it still had about a half an inch of spline showing on the half shaft. which i figure would be easy to fix except that the snap ring somehow got pinched between the inner bearing housing and the shaft or something when i put the joint back together. the shaft and joint doesn't seem to be effected at all by it...but the snap ring is completely destroyed. does anyone know where i can get a new one of those? i already checked at autozone, they didnt have them..but they were more than willing to sell me an entire axle... also.. does anyone know what i did to mess up this snap ring?

 

Snap ring needs to fit just soooo on axle or it won't work. Lots of times they get bent up. Sounds like a dealer part.

 

what would happen if i just didn't use the snap ring?

 

The axles would slip out from the transaxle when you go around turns, and dump trans fluid on the ground, etc. I learned that one the hard way. Luckily, I saved my old snap rings, rehabilitated them, and was able to reinstall again. It's been great ever since.

Some cars, like my old Dodge Caravan, didn't even need snap rings.