The front wheel bearing was going bad on my 2001 Z24 , and in the last 10 days or so I noticed a clunking sound coming from the wheel everytime I came to a stop ( like there are rocks in a hub cap or something ) so I jack the car up and take the wheel off and hear something fall and clunk on the ground .... to my surprise it was part of the trans axle with the axle nut still on it ( shown in pic 1 )..... im not sure how long that was broke , but the fracture is clean with no rust so must of been recent. The other pic shows how bad the bearing was , its not suppose to just come apart like that , is it ? I also love the way they make those sway bar bushing links now , when an end snaps off like they always do , you still cant get that POS off!! ..... sooooo , I just melted it off with my trusty propane torch

 

Holy crap! How many miles were on it? Looks like it was never greased...
What does it take to replace the axle shaft??
Yikes........

 

They are a sealed bearing. (not designed to be serviced.)

It looks like as the bearing came apart it allowed the slop to break the cv axle. Good thing it didn't defecate the sleeping quarters while you were on the highway. I've never seen that before.

 

Hmmm - looks like someone else almost needed this:
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-showcars.html

 

Yep Hopefully you had on clean underwear.

 

Or at least had a spare pair, along with some emergency TP...

 

So, you wanna pawn it or sell it?

 

ouch! NEVER seen an axle do that before. Very fortunate it didn't come apart at highway speed, or there would have been all kinds of handling issues. I don't see how it actually was still in place and moving...

And to top it all off, you may have issues trying to turn that axle shaft in as a core too, unless the dude at the counter doesn't look at it too closely. If there's any threads left on the CV joint itself, you might try using the locknut to join the stub back in place and hide the damage. Won't get noticed until it gets to the reman outlet hopefully...

Buddy I know took the half shafts out of an old 4wd jimmy/blazer years ago (mid 80's model I believe) and was taking them in to trade for the new shafts in the same blazer, as that was his only vehicle. He got about 1/2 mile down the road and both front wheels fell off when the bearings came apart. oops... lesson learned.

-Jeff

 

ha ha , yea I returned the shaft core for a refund , it was nice of them to design the box so you cant see either end of the shaft .... easier for returns , no hassles

 

the shaft is original , and the bearing may have been replaced already , I cant remember which one I replaced on that car the last time ..... the shaft replacement is pretty easy , once you pop the tie rod out , the lower balljoint out , stabilizer bushing link out , remove caliper and rotor , axle nut , I beleive all that is left is the three bolts that hold the bearing to the housing , pull the whole thing still hooked to the strutt out toward you untill the shaft is out of the bearing , and there is one spot you can get a skinny pry bar or BFS to get the shaft to pop from the tranny ( theres a little retaining ring in a groove on shaft ) lots o fun , took about three hours or so

now that I look at the picture I took the bearing does look pretty rusty and dry , but there was a fair amount of dirty grease in between the ***** and I think the flash from the camara gave it a rusty look.

 

and I just got off the freeway before I did the inspection!