Hello folks, my first post here.

Firstly ... thanks for the info on the fix for the broken shifter linkage... that helped.

I started to search on this new problem but not sure what terms to use and got too many results...

OK here's my question.

Been getting a knocking sound from the front left wheel (mostly when turning/accelerating... it's been getting louder over the last week...
and then this morning ... CLUNK... now it won't engage.. sounds like gears that want to mesh but they're not... (front left wheel) it is NOT coming from the trans.
I half expected to see the wheel crooked after coasting to a stop... but everything looks intact.

What am I facing here? thoughts?

 

As your wheel turns, goes up and down over bumps and going around corners there is something called a CV joint. A fancy universal on the axle half, the part coming from the transmission out to the wheel. It must be there to cause all the funny motion that takes place at the wheel. They can and do fail and show symptoms of a wide variety, some of which you are describing.
They are replaceable with some mechanical knowledge and tools using a jack and jack stands to lift and support your car. The entire half shaft or axle can be purchased as a rebuilt unit from your auto parts store. The price is generally well under $100.00 and the repair CAN be done by your self. OR you can have the car towed to a repair agency and be changed at a value approaching the national debt depending on where you take it and how big a mercenary they are.

 

Thanks very much for your answer Uncljohn.

That I can afford
And although I've never changed one before, I'm not a stranger to working on old cars.
I'll give it a go...

Cheers,
Vincent

 

It's really not that difficult of a job, Vincent. The hardest part for me was always getting the damned locknut on the axle loose. I use a 1/2 drive breaker bar with a 3 foot long "cheater pipe" over the handle on it. Never had any trouble with that combination. Just make sure you have the correct size socket and it's a 6-point and not 12.

 

Before you waste any money on a remanufactured axle, see if there is a new axle available at autopartswarehouse.com. Look for the EMPI brand, I've had the best luck with them. They are new axles that are made in China and cost about the same as a reman OEM, but I've had nothing but trouble from remans. Too many of them are "remaned" even when they are already beyond recovery.

At the moment the autopartswarehouse web site is down for maintenance, but I've always had good service from them. You might check rockauto.com as well but I don't think they carry the EMPI brand.

 

... The local autoparts store "O'Reillys" has them in stock here...
Remanufactured and new...
@ $59 the new ones only cost $10 more than than the RM.

 

Pretty much a no brainer, isn't it?

 

Last time I heard, new half-shafts installed by a "dealership" conversant with Saturns would be about $265 per side.

 

Well it put up a hard fight... as did I.
I was pretty alarmed to find how rotted the frame is on this car.
So much so that I'm surprised that the car hasn't simply fallen to pieces!

Had a hard time getting the shaft all the way into the trans...

After getting everything back together... I reversed a little bit to check it, seemed fine. Then went forward a few feet before "clunk"... seemed to have popped out.


I haven't looked back at it yet to see what's up.

So.. the clip on the end of the axle is supposed to lock it in right? How?
It took a lot of wiggling and turning of the axle to get it in... past the point where the clip seemed to be unaligned and stopping it. But finally it appeared to be seated in there all the way.

I'm hoping that maybe that clip just didn't engage, and I'll be able to get back in there and get it seated fully?
My fear is that the frame is so rotted (the engine mount looks really bad too) that it might just be a lost cause.

 

I have unfortunately been challenged with having to do this a number of times, lemme see. On my 94 Saturn to replace the bearing the axle stub rides in on the steering knuckle, a 99 Saturn, same reason. A 1991 Caravan, both sides and a 1992 Mitsubishi. And I never had a problem with any of them. The hard thing to get done was to get the steering knuckle loose enough so that when it was turned I had enough slop in the front end pieces to maneuver the half shaft out and I guess back in. I think that is the chain of events that take place.
I am trying to relate this from some times faulty memory. It seems to me the instructions for this had to do with making things loose from the lower ball joint and as for some reason that is always a problem 'specially with a car with age and or rust on it it found it easier to remove what ever controls the lower control arm and on a Saturn if my memory is correct that is the end of the front sway bar that also serves as a lower control arm.
I say all that for this reason. I never had a problem getting the half shaft in far enough so the "clip" pops into place.
The dlip must not do much in the way holding things in. Why? Because when taking things apart once you are ready to get the half shaft loose from the transmission it requires little or no effort to get it to pop out. So what keeps it there has to be all the suspension pieces bolted together corrects so when the nut that holds the wee little axle stub in the bearing in the steering knuckle the distance from the steering knuckle to the transmission is such that nothing is going to go anywhere that it should not. If it pops out of the transmission that is telling me that something is wrong with where the steering knuckle ends up. The axle stub is held in place in the steering knuckle and that should keep things from popping apart. UNLESS the steering knuckle is not where it belongs.
The question I think is why did it come apart?
And I think the answer is the steering knuckle is not in the right position when all is tightened up.
And I think the answer to that is why isn't it and I don't know. I never had the problem.
OTHER THEN, when I started for what ever reason I did not like an instruction that says remove the strut from the lower control arm by making it free from the ball joint. So I removed the lower control arm from the car instead.
No matter what you do you need to have it re-aligned anyway and I thought I had a better idea so I did it my way.
NOW does anything I said relate to the way you went about things? If they are different, is that why you had problems.
Or am I just a senior citizen rambling on.
I can't believe I just said that!

I just remembered why I said what I did, you have to rotate the steering knuckle in such a way that you have to back the axle stub out of it and then pull the half shaft from the transmission and I could never get it done easily unless the lower control arm was free from the car body or chassis so I unbolted what ever it took to get the control arm loose. Now there was enough room to turn the steering knuckle so the axle stub could back out through the bearing and place it in the position to pull it from the transmission.
To my way of thinking, it things popped apart from the transmission something is wrong with the final location of the steering knuckle.
NOW!
Why?