driveshafts... how do you know whether its popped out or not?

[vinnY]

so i'm driving along and the steering wheel starts to wobble so i think 'damn must be a busted tyre'
pull into a side street and proceed to park the car and get out to check which tyres busted
after going around and checking all 4, they appear to be fine

so i get back in the car and start it up again, no weird sounds yet. give it a rev and nothing different

heres where it gets interesting, start to take off and i'll get up to 10k's and i'll hear a knocking sound and feel a tapping on the clutch pedal and it proceeds to knock until i come to a complete stop. first thing that pops into my head is 'crap the driveshafts probably popped out'
so i call the old man down to rescue me since i didn't have my jack in the car(long story) and i proceed to take off my driver side wheel and look at the drive shaft, seems okay no fluid leaking and no excessive movement
so i'm baffled at this point

so i drive up and down the street a bit performing some u-turns(full lock) to see if my dad can hear anything different outside
nothing new, so he hops into the passenger side and i proceed to do a couple more u-turns up and down the street
suddenly no more sound
so i attempt to drive back home and about 2k's from my house it seems to start wobbling again but goes away after about 100m while moving.
so i finally get home jack the car up and looked at the passenger side driveshaft and it seems secure
looked at the driver side driveshaft and there appears to be a tiny gap of about 5mm, i can see a bit of the shaft thats supposed to be in the gearbox(i'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be able to) but no fluid is leaking out from here

so how would i be able to identify whether the driveshaft has popped out too far or not?

[bennjamin]

any fluid leaking out of the diff area ?counds like the cir-clip on the end of the driveshaft isnt sitting in the housing correctly.
Give it a tap with a rubber or wooden hammer and make sure its held secure in the diff housing

[vinnY]

no fluid leaking but thats what i suspect
on further inspection there appears to be a 4-5mm gap between the drive shaft end(not sure what its called, its the big big you hold when you're pulling the drive shaft out) and the gearbox housing itself
going to give it a few light taps with a rubber mallet and see if it pops in any further

[bennjamin]

ok , drivers side or passenger side (of the diff housing) ?

The passenger side is held in by the MIDshaft so it cant really move out at all. But hte drivers side CAN pop out slightly if the cir-clip is worn or not installed properly.

[vinnY]

yeah its the driver side
i can tug on the shaft gently and theres a tiny bit of movement which gives me some knocking sound but as for moving the shaft as a whole its pretty solid

[Project R]

have you ever had the driveshaft rebuilt before?
the reason i ask is because i had the same problem..
the place that i got it rebuilt at some how rebuilt it shorter hence the movement between the diff and the shaft..

[lenz]

might be your wheel hub/ bearings mate jack it up and wobby the wheel see if it moves side to side its shud feel like the wheel is gona fall off

[bennjamin]

vinny id look at reinstalling hte driveshaft (on the drivers side) for piece of mind.
You will have to drain the tranny fluid too remember !

[vinnY]

yeah unfortunately that might be my only option
there goes 3 week old syntrax down the drain :(

will see how i go tomorrow, hopefully i can find some oem mtf around

[destrukshn]

not much fluid comes out when you pop out the drive shafts.

[BlitZ]

Sound like a worn hub... that would be my first pick for the money

[vinnY]

anyway to test this blitz?
no wobbily wheel action when i jack it up

took out the driveshaft and whacked it back in on the weekend, seems to have held up okay for now, will see how it goes in the next week or two

[bennjamin]

have you tested your fluid level ? (on flat level surface) open the 17mm fill nut , on the side of the housing. Put ya finger in the hole and make sure its just at the bottom of the fill hole :)

[vinnY]

was going to check that again tonight :) will report my findings..