why does my fornt drivers side axle keep breaking on my Cavalier

[glenmalkowicz]

hi the bearing in my drivers side axle recently broke in my 1998 auto cavalier, so i towed my car home and put a new axle on, i went for a 2 minute drive up the road turned around in a driveway to go back home and it broke again, i tried one more axle and it did the same thing, what breaks is the bearing thingy under the rubber boot closest to where the axle goes into the tranny. and when this happens and u try to drive the car the whole front end starts shaking liek crazy and u cant drive, so anyone no why this keeps happing, oh and the first axel broke about 20km after i hit a jump going over some rail road tracks, so maybe i bent something,

[shorod]

It sounds like you might be getting the wrong half shaft for your car or you're not getting the shaft seated properly in the CV joint before taking the car for a drive.

Have any other mods been done to the suspension such as lowering the car or replacing control arms? How does the CV joint fail, does the boot tear and the shaft separates from the joint and boot or does it all appear to remain one piece? Is there a chance the problem is internal to the transaxle rather than the shaft failing?

-Rod

[glenmalkowicz]

when this happens the boot tears and the 3 bearing in the cv joint tear to peices and it all falls apart, and i bought the whole axle, and thats held on by circlip on the transmission shaft. so i dont think im putting it in wroung because ciclip keeps it in place, so maybe somethings wrong with my tranny and its just causing the axle to break. and there as been no mods to this car, thanks

[Blt2Lst]

Originally Posted by glenmalkowicz

i hit a jump going over some rail road tracks, so maybe i bent something,

Do ya think..
Cars do not like to do jumps and get airborne, they land way to hard and yes, that could bend something

[glenmalkowicz]

well it must be the tranny then because if i get a new axle and tranny it got to work................ right

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by glenmalkowicz

well it must be the tranny then because if i get a new axle and tranny it got to work................ right

No. Don't guess. It's probably in the structure of the car, not the driveline.

Take the car to an alignment shop first. Tell them you bent something. They can measure the car's structure, subframe, control arms and related geometry and find out whats out of whack.