Doh, so I went over a bump the other day, lots of noise, had to get home so limped home in 1st with lots of nasty noises coming from front corner. Finally got round to getting the wheel off and investigating...

Basically, the shaft seems to have popped out of the box, and got jammed in a gap in front of the box...

I figure I'll have to disconnect it from the wheel to remove it? How easy is doing that and what tools will I need.

 

This problem usually occurs when the car is lowered much, or if you have a bad engine mount on the right side. Check the engine mount first. If it,s bad, replace it with a vibratech and the Escorts heatshield. You need to remove the diff cover, and remove the secure clip on the drive shaft inside. Then remove the nut that holds the driveshaft and wheelbearing. press out the driveshaft. Release the traction control arms outer mounting point, and then replace it doing it the opposite way. Check the greaselevel in the other shaft if it,s a used one. If you need a longer shaft, GGR has it. Good luck! Johnny. Sweden.

 

pop the lower balljoint on the tca
pull the cv boot from the outside cv joint
clean the grease out
find the cirslip inside the outer cv joint
pull the shaft out of the hub
the shaft will now come out
swap the shaft for a longer one
fix the engine mount
the inner joit will just pull out

 

Thanks for the help, is the circlip easy to remove?

 

it depends on how much luck you have with it
it's been known to come out in seconds, but it's also been known to take over 2 hours because it's a right little bastid

as long as you clean out ALL the cv grease you'll be able to spot it easily enough, just be aware that some circlip pliers are a bit too big to fit into the slot, you may have to get invetive with a pair of small screwdrivers in that case

 

Big delay... now I got round to borrowing a ball joint splitter. If I remove the drive shaft is it safe to drive the car?

 

the car won't drive if there is no driveshaft there

it'll drive for a while as long as the viscous coupling in the transfer box send the power there, but after that i'll die and you won't go nowhere without a new VC

 

Ah ok, so I won't be driving it then, thanks!