My adventure last night. Lower BJ separated on the road to my house. Pulled the driveshaft apart at the inner CV joint. Brake lines somehow remained intact and nothing else appears to be damaged...

What can I expect for what needs to be replaced? I'm good with vehicles but i'm usually a jeep guy so this is a bit foreign to me.

I assume at a minimum: lower ball joints (i'm going to have both sides done), new inner CV boot, and repair inner CV joint. Anything else I should be worried about?

 

Lucky you didn't get hurt or hurt someone else. Did the body of the car get damaged? Did you have clunks or other noises prior? Looks like a new driveshaft and ball joints at a minimum. And some new tires by the look of it

 

yea tires already were in the works.

Wife was driving and managed to keep it on the road, so no damage other than the lip of the fender. Skated on the castle nut of the lower balljoint, so nothing else dragged.

We took a trip a few weeks ago and noticed an odd creaking sound on that side when parking. Couldn't find anything and the sound didn't happen again so didn't think anything of it - thought it was just the suspension bushings getting hard. Probably was the ball joint complaining...

Looking at the parts diagram it appears the inner CV pulled apart where it enters the cup at the intermediate shaft, so yea i'm figuring new BJs, new half shaft and hopefully that's it.

 

While you're there, check the upper ball joint and tie rod end just to make sure that they're both nice and tight and nothing got damaged from the wheel moving that far back and at that angle.

Was this an OEM ball joint?

 

will do. And yea AFAIK it's OEM original. About 140k on the car currently

 

not an unusual failure of ball joint, popular recently too!

DO get a NEW not rebuilt cv shaft with new bearings on each end
Just with the miles =its getting ready, and with this failure it has undergone stresses way beyond design limits,,,about 100 bucks for the axle assembly complete
NAPA auto parts makes a reliable unit

 

I had my LBJ’s replaced last year, never heard or felt anything but they had some play in them upon inspection. I replaced the ball joints, castle nuts, axle nuts, clip pins, and axles. I bought brand new OEM axles from Bernardi parts online, lowest price I could find but they only had the passenger side. Tim at OEMAcuraParts pricematched the driver side.

If you have the funds I’d replace the upper ball joints soon too. I still need to do that.

 

Probably a good time to replace as much as ya can afford while things are apart.If that side went bad, the other can't be too far behind. Consider also replacing the wheel bearings, tie rod ends, both lower and upper ball joints for both sides. Peace of mind and better tire wear.

 

you are a Jeep guy- this is a nothing job for you! you break more parts and replace them on the trail !
its nothing but nuts and bolts

Replace whats needed based on actual physical inspection, don't have to replace everything right now when you are not paying ~double labor~ to a shop