need advice, or a rough estimate...

Coming home from the christmas party was fun to say the least. Roads were packed with 3 inches of snow and no state trucks out saling or plowing. The 2000 Malibu groaned at me in the block 1/2 I had to stop before the stop light that had just turned red. Traffic was pulling out of the cross street so i decided to see if the 5-10 MPH sled could turn a corner. It did 1/2 that good and got 1/2 way thru when it decided not to want to turn anymore. The rubber kissed the curb nearly parallell with the tire.. (eeek) and in doing so sheared the control arm ? Brake line is still in tact, strut is facing to the outside maybe an inch or so, but not enough to damage the steel under the hood, i'm assuming a new mount there would be a good idea tho. :) The CV shaft of that side (driver) Appears to be ok, no leakage of any 'blood / red tx fluid", but it did pull itself out of the hub assy. about 1/2 way, retainer ring wraped around the shaft.

My question is this. As all these parts appear to be bolt on.. I should be able to fix this without too much 'difficulty' ? I have never worked on a chevy let alone a wrecked car period. Do the outer cv's come off? can they be replaced without opening the trans diff ? if the cv's appear ok, can i reuse them? or is this a tight tolerance issue? I'm sure it will need a pro alignment afterwards. But is this a simple fix that a dealer would claim to be a $3000-$4000 job. When a parts cost from a junkyard or whathave you might be more like 250-300. ? Is there any reason the engine would have to be pulled to work on the tx if it is needed? My Taurus SHO's motor had to come up, and out when i did my rod bearings, and found a spun bearing requiring a new crank.. (yea!! that was fun.. :( grumble grumble grumble) lol are there any kind of "suprises" that i will encounter? Are there any websites for parts I could look at? Sorry to ask too many questions and make this a long thread, but when your other half forgets to pay her insurance two days before it happens... lets just say i want it fixed and outta my hair as soon as possible. :) thanks guys, as always.

Eric

Coming home from the christmas party was fun to say the least. Roads were packed with 3 inches of snow and no state trucks out saling or plowing. The 2000 Malibu groaned at me in the block 1/2 I had to stop before the stop light that had just turned red. Traffic was pulling out of the cross street so i decided to see if the 5-10 MPH sled could turn a corner. It did 1/2 that good and got 1/2 way thru when it decided not to want to turn anymore. The rubber kissed the curb nearly parallell with the tire.. (eeek) and in doing so sheared the control arm ? Brake line is still in tact, strut is facing to the outside maybe an inch or so, but not enough to damage the steel under the hood, i'm assuming a new mount there would be a good idea tho. :) The CV shaft of that side (driver) Appears to be ok, no leakage of any 'blood / red tx fluid", but it did pull itself out of the hub assy. about 1/2 way, retainer ring wraped around the shaft.

My question is this. As all these parts appear to be bolt on.. I should be able to fix this without too much 'difficulty' ? I have never worked on a chevy let alone a wrecked car period. Do the outer cv's come off? can they be replaced without opening the trans diff ? if the cv's appear ok, can i reuse them? or is this a tight tolerance issue? I'm sure it will need a pro alignment afterwards. But is this a simple fix that a dealer would claim to be a $3000-$4000 job. When a parts cost from a junkyard or whathave you might be more like 250-300. ? Is there any reason the engine would have to be pulled to work on the tx if it is needed? My Taurus SHO's motor had to come up, and out when i did my rod bearings, and found a spun bearing requiring a new crank.. (yea!! that was fun.. :( grumble grumble grumble) lol are there any kind of "suprises" that i will encounter? Are there any websites for parts I could look at? Sorry to ask too many questions and make this a long thread, but when your other half forgets to pay her insurance two days before it happens... lets just say i want it fixed and outta my hair as soon as possible. :) thanks guys, as always.

Eric
Do you have insurance? This may not a job for a dyer, you need a lift , strut compressor tools, alignment, checking the subframe attaching points for damage and so on. Be careful with your decision to try and do this yourself. There may be hidden damage here that requires some experience to find. We here cannot see the extent of the damage nor can we gauge your ability to tackle this job.

Do you have insurance? This may not a job for a dyer, you need a lift , strut compressor tools, alignment, checking the subframe attaching points for damage and so on. Be careful with your decision to try and do this yourself. There may be hidden damage here that requires some experience to find. We here cannot see the extent of the damage nor can we gauge your ability to tackle this job.


Well I'm an electrician by trade and no auto damage expert. No after it happend she told me it wasnt. And my coverage is only liabliity on my work truck, which carries over, but no collision coverage. Additionally I havent had a chance to take a good look. If its too crazy I do have a friend that is a mechanic for International trucks, and he has plenty of tools. :) and extra goodies up his sleeve. But he is outta town, and i'm just curious about a few things as i stated above. Anything helps.

Well I'm an electrician by trade and no auto damage expert. No after it happend she told me it wasnt. And my coverage is only liabliity on my work truck, which carries over, but no collision coverage. Additionally I havent had a chance to take a good look. If its too crazy I do have a friend that is a mechanic for International trucks, and he has plenty of tools. :) and extra goodies up his sleeve. But he is outta town, and i'm just curious about a few things as i stated above. Anything helps.


upon a little closer inspection the end of the CV shaft sheared off up next to the transmission, and the lower control arm ? a-frame ? is sheared in half. The outer cv joint pulled apart so its save to say a new shaft is more than likley in order. My question is this. The peice that is still in the tranny just pulls out I am assuming? Someone was telling me that Chevy's usually just slide out, or pry out. Being broken, I was thinking about drilling into the center of it maybe 1/2 way thru, and tapping it for a bolt, to pry against. I was thinking about getting a new strut already compressed into a housing, and mounting it to a new strut plate. And installing new tie rods. Then I was thinking about getting it aligned. My first priority is getting it rolling, driveable or not, I need to get it in the garage and out of the snow so I can really look at it without freezing. :) I have pics but not sure how to attach them on here. I'll work on that next.. :)