Not quite broken down....

[The Bishop]

I've not quite broken down (yet) but fear it is imminent.

I am in spain (San Sebastián) I'm getting a knocking noise from the rear near side wheel and have discovered there is 1" lateral movement which I am sure is the cause.

So it's either the cv joint or drive shaft?
I've two weeks. Do I keep going through the Pyrenees or stay put?
How quickly is it going to go kuput?

Recommendations please.

[itchyfeet]

Need to explain better what you mean by lateral movement
you can remove the driveshafts and the wheel stays put so if wheel is moving relative to the trailing arm bearings are shot or bearing housing bolts have come loose

if however the driveshaft is moving then it could be bolts come loose, as said whats moving?

driveshaft will move a bit horizontally in cvs

[CJH]

I had a similar issue the first time I took my van away for a 2-week holiday a year ago. It turned out to be a loose hub nut, which was tightened up for me by a garage near our campsite. In the year since then I've still not got to the bottom of it. The hub nut had a split pin in it so it hadn't unwound. Current working theory is that the previous owner may have recently replaced the rear bearings and hadn't pressed one of them in far enough, so that on the road the movement pushed the bearing home. It needed tightening up again a few months later, but since then it's stayed tight. There's still the possibility that it's a collapsing bearing for instance, but I'll worry about it when (if) it starts drumming again.

If this is your issue it should be easy to see - take the hub cap off, jack up that corner and look for play between the hub nut and the hub when you wobble the wheel. You'll need a 46mm socket, a breaker bar and a scaffold pole to tighten it yourself, so probably best finding a friendly garage on your travels.

[lefty67]

I had a knocking cv on our trip to Scotland in may. Decided to risk it, drove over a 1000 miles with it. More of an annoyance than anything else.

[The Bishop]

Need to explain better what you mean by lateral movement
you can remove the driveshafts and the wheel stays put so if wheel is moving relative to the trailing arm bearings are shot or bearing housing bolts have come loose

if however the driveshaft is moving then it could be bolts come loose, as said whats moving?

driveshaft will move a bit horizontally in cvs

I probably need to jack the back quarter up.
At the moment I don't think the wheel is moving, just the drive shaft. It seems to have an inch of movement on the near side and half that on the other side.

[CovKid]

Probably hanging on with one or two bolts then and won't last long. You could tighten them (if you have three or four actually still there) and proceed, checking again every few miles or so but ideally you want new bolts as soon as possible.

[The Bishop]

Itchy feet you are a savour. Yes the 5bolts were loose. They were at the wheel end which is a bugger to get to but managed to tighten then. Cov kid, fortunately all 5 were still there. No knocking today so will check them again tomorrow as I think we are staying put for 48 hours at a camp sight in the Pyrenees.

Thanks everyone.

[itchyfeet]

Youre Welcome
Probably best to change the bolts when you get home as they could now be stressed but you can now enjoy your holls

[nevill3]

I thought that there are SIX cv joint bolts not 5

[The Bishop]

I'll have a check of the bolts today, perhaps there are 6.

[itchyfeet]

Yes deffo should be six in pairs with spreader plates on each pair

[The Bishop]

Yes there was one hidden round the back, difficult to get to that was still only finger tight

All tight now. Will replace when I get back to the UK or before if I can find a supplier.

[CovKid]

No worries fella. Enjoy the rest of your trip now.

[what2do]

Another near miss. I tightened mine after reading a tale like this about a year ago. Did toy with the idea of thread lock but........it's a job not to damage the bolt heads as it is when they're just correctly torqued. I imagine thread lock would make the job of bolt removal a real knuckle scratcher!

[sarran1955]

Hello,

You are welcome to come by ...

recheck the bolts over a pit..

Like we do here,,,,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meTNBph ... gNrGfa9EAg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cordialement..