I'm wondering if one of you guys can help me with an unusual problem. I have a 1996 Cavalier that I race at my local short track. I bought the car already built for the track. This car was originally an automatic car but, was converted to a 5 Speed manual. Last week I busted my driver's side front axle. I replaced it with a new axle from Advance Auto Parts. When I tested our replacement, as soon as I turned the car fully to the left, it pulled out of the "cup" and busted again. All mounts and such are undamaged and as they should be. After further inspection, we noticed that the original axle shaft was about a half to three quarters of an inch longer. This explains why my brand new axle pulled out of the cup and broke when we tested the car. I looked up the part numbers for the axles. It seems that from 1995 through 1999, the axle had a slightly shorter shaft than the one that was originally on the car. I thought that it was possible that the tranny was from a 2000 - 2005 so, I looked at a shaft for the 2000 through 2005. It appears to be the exact same length as the 1995 - 1999 axle. This leads me to believe that this tranny is not from a 1995 - 2005 Cavalier. Is it possible that this manual transmission was from a second generation (1988 - 1994) cavalier? I tried to look for the identification plate on the tranny. There isn't one. I can't find any identifying marks at all on there. Does anyone know if the second generation axle shaft is slightly longer than a third generation axle shaft? Can a second generation tranny be installed on a third generation engine? I couldn't look at a second generation axle shaft because none of the auto parts stores have one in stock. Does anyone know where I can get the specs on axle shaft lengths? I called a dealer and they couldn't help me. I think they just didn't want to bother looking. If anyone should know it would be them!! Please help me if you have any info on this or any experience with this situation!!! I actually used an old axle shaft from my parts car to rebuild the original longer axle shaft and it seems to work well but, I'm sure I will break another axle someday and I'd like to know what I will need to get to repair it next time..... Thanks alot guys!!!
Bill Eaker
Chesapeake, VA
im no expert at this but , which transmission is it getrag or isuzu? do you even know?
Dealers can not give "specs" to a axle, just PN. 95-99 Driver side axles are the same, 2nd gen 2.2 trannys should be the same as a 95-99 3rd gen is..... if i had to guess, you got a shaft from a 2nd gen car, or a L-body car......both are narrower.
Chris
'02 Z-24 Supercharged
13.7 @102.45 MPH Third Place, 2007 GMSC Bash SOLD AS OF 01MAR08
The axle pulled out again at practice tonight. The car was great until I spun it out and had to do a U-turn on the track, This caused me to have to turn the wheel hard over and "BOOM"...
I have no idea which tranny it is because I can't see any markings. New news though.....
I noticed that the lower motor mount is bent ever so slightly to the passenger side. That is to say that that bolt looking part is not straight and parallel to the frame rail. This could explain it. I'm going to see if I can hook a chainfall to the motor mount bracket under the engine and yank it over about an inch. If it works, it should solve the problem. I'll let you know the outcome of the "yanking"!!!!
Plan is to try to pull the engine over about an inch and regardless of the result install a new axle and just STOP TURNING THE WHEEL HARD OVER!!! Hopefully there won't be any wrecks to avoid!!!!.......
just throwing this out there (again) You got the wrong axle...
Chris
'02 Z-24 Supercharged
13.7 @102.45 MPH Third Place, 2007 GMSC Bash SOLD AS OF 01MAR08
Issue solved...... I did have the correct axle however, the steering was not adjusted properly. The tie rods were adjusted such that you could only turn the streering wheel 1 turn to the right before it was hard over and you could turn the steering wheel to the left two turns. Therefore, when I would turn to the left (too far) the axle would pull out. Adjusted the tie rods such that there is about 1 and a half turns of the steering wheel each way. Problem solved. Thanks for the advice though!! Hopefully someone else who has this problem will learn from my stupidity!!!
