HELP!!! Any IRS experts out there? I need help ASAP!!!

[wideglidejoe]

OK, I'm at the track today (Sat a.m.), a road course. I've made several laps, all is good. In one of the straights, I wrap it out in 3rd, shift to 4th. Not a speed shift, but not a grandma shift either. Clutch out in 4th, back on the throttle......nothing!!! Clutch in/out, tried other gears, nothing. Just like the driveshaft was missing. Towed off of the track.

In the pits, jacked up the rear wheels. Tranny in neutral, driveshaft is OK. I rotated the right/pass rear tire, the left/driver tire doesn't turn. Great!! But......I notice the driver side, inboard CV boot is turning on the half shaft. The driver side half-shaft, outer CV boot and tire isn't turning. So, I think the IRS center section is OK, and my driver side inboard CV joint is bad.

Into the trailer, tow it home (65 miles), now torn apart in my garage.

Driver side half-shaft is removed. I remove the bands that hold the inner CV boot in place. Please pardon my terminology.........While carefully removing the outer shell that the inboard CV tri-lobe resides in, the shell that has the splined end that goes into the center section, I notice that the splined tri-lobe part has slid off of the splined end of my half-shaft.

Here's where I'm fuzzy......the inboard end of the half-shaft is splined, and there is a ring in a groove. If I slide the splined tri-lobe part over the half shaft, up to where it is against the ring in the groove, the other side of the tri-lobe is flush with the end of the splined half-shaft. Is there anything that supposed to keep this tri-lobe part on the half-shaft? What keeps it from sliding off while in service?

If I put the half-shaft all back together, new grease, new boot clamps, etc., and if I'm careful not to "over extend" the length of the half-shaft when I put it back into the center section, and into the outer IRS knuckle, is it going to come apart again?

I'd really like to get this together Sat p.m. and go back to the track again on Sunday. I've paid for two days, and I've got to use less than a fourth of it.

If anyone can talk me through this, rather than reply here, would you please call me at 918-857-7172. I would really appreciate it!! I'm going to cut/paste this and post on other forums too, this is the first forum I've came to.

I've got a FFR MK3, #6143. Pin width IRS, 8.8 Ford center section.

thanks is advance,
Joe

[Hankl]

Joe,

There is a snap ring that is supposed to go on the out side and inside of the Tri-Lobe. We had another one lost like that on Karen's car. It's a Ford part number,


IRS cir clip PN is 3Z498 (bottom RT of Hanks pic)
The clip on the axle is 4K184 (top RT clip in pic) and on the end of the axle inside the joint is 4N237 (Top LF clip of Hanks pic)

http://www.ffcars.com/FAQ/irs/shaft.jpg

Hope this helps.

Hank :cool:

[wideglidejoe]

Hankl, thanks so much for your diagram AND the phone call!! I really appreciate it! I'm off to the parts store, hopefully back on the track tomorrow.

thanks again,
take care,
Joe

[vnmsss]

Joe....Welcome to my world!! LOL! The same thing happened to me on-track, only it was in the middle of a 2 hour enduro in May at Thunderhill. Following the 25 Hours last year, we had installed "new" axle assemblies, which had been rebuilt by another person and already had the cv joints installed.....I had been running on these all year....

In the race, I shifted coming out of a turn and....No go....Huh??? Tried it again, and nothing. Even though I pretty much Sunday shift all the time (in an effort to not beat up my tranny/linkage), and haven't missed a shift in years, I thought maybe I was loosing my touch in my old age. The next thought was the clutch cable, or ????....Fortunately, I was carrying enough speed to coast to the track exit....A quick check in the hot pit told us it was going to take a whole lot more time than the 45 minutes we had left in the race, so into the trailer she went.

When we pulled it apart, we discovered three of the snap clips had not been installed, and that the left side axle assembly had separated and galled the splines.....It was now a "new" piece of junk, and had to be replaced completely.....We checked the right side, and found the same problem.....We talked to Hank while we were trouble-shooting, and he (as always) was a great help... ;.) I'm glad you were able to talk with him before going back out on track. ;.)

Karen

Karen