I recently had a problem with my axle pulling out of the transmission while driving under normal conditions. The axle is about 2-3 years old and has been fine since the day it was new. Any ideas what could have caused this?

I'm thinking that the spring clip that keeps the axles locked into the transmission broke and allowed the axle to pull out.

I was driving down the road the other day and rev-matched from 4th to 3rd gear. After getting the car into gear smoothly, I took my foot off the gas and started to apply the brake. Suddenly, the car popped out of 3rd gear into neutral and a clunking sound started to come from the engine bay. I pulled off on the side of the road and popped my hood only to find out that the axle had pulled almost all the way out of the transmission. All CV joints/boots were intact and the suspension had not changed.

Also, since I can't seem to get the axle nut off even with a 3ft breaker bar and a 3 ft extension pole on the bar, can I heat up the axle nut with a torch without hurting a wheel bearing (new ones were installed about 3 months ago)

 

you shouldnt have to remove the axle bolt from your wheel hub. if the axle is still in good condition there is no need to completely remove it....you should be able to remove the lower ball joint on the suspension and slide the axle out of the trans....once removed, you will able to see if the spring clip is still there or not....also if it is not, drain you tranny fluid and see if its in there...if not you may have to take your tranny off and find that thing. the last thing you need/want is to have that thing flyin around in your tranny...

p.s. - if you have trouble getting off the lower ball joints ( as i did ) you can simply remove the bolts that hold on the control arm...its 4 bolts....that will give you enough play to pull it straight out...

 

I had to bang the axle back in with a hammer to get it so I could drive it home. It was parked at a local park and I got a citation for it being there over night, plus my car is too low to fit on a roll back. Since I hit it with a hammer, the boot ripped, and I'm just going to replace the axle anyway.

That's why I asked if heat will be detrimental to the wheel bearing. Thanks for the help though.

 

Make sure the nut is completely unstaked, hit it with some penetrating oil and get a longer breaker bar if you don't have access to an impact wrench.

And yeah, heat is bad for the bearings. My dad's rear driver's side brakes wouldn't disengage so they kept riding on the caliper and turned it blue, and like 1000 miles later his wheel bearing was totally obliterated. It was a Ford Explorer, but still, the heat must have cooked away the grease...

 

I've used heat on the axle nut and there were no problems with the bearing. Also, I saw a mechanic use heat on the axle nut when he couldn't remove it with an impact wrench; take it for what it's worth.

 

Well, I hit it with PB Blaster about 10 times in an hour and hit it with 2 different impact guns on the highest torque setting and psi they can handle. Nothing budges. Then tried another breaker bar with the extension bar again. Snapped the driver off it again. This is getting ridiculous! I can lift the whole right front of the car off the ground trying to do this, with the motor in the car. WTF?!?!?

I'm going to try to limp the car to Absolute Pro-formance tomorrow and see if JDM Dan can break it loose. If not, I'm going to resort to heat because I will have exhausted my options. I'm not sure if I can find a shop with 3/4" drive breaker bars and sockets.... which may help my situation if I could.

I know heat is bad for the bearings, but I figure that as long as I don't heat them up too long, I should be ok. I'm not going to make the whole thing glowing hot, just hot enough to see if I can get it to move. I'd cut it off but my extended wheel studs wont let a 4.5" cutting disk on an angle grinder get to it.

 

Well, I found out that it wasn't an axle problem after all. The sleeve on the diff that the axle slides into sheared off and came out with the axle when I pulled it out.

Now I need a new trans. FML!