[John Corbs]

Hello everybody as the title says I have broken 3 driverside axles on my civic, all during left turns, all broken at the joint on the transmission side, all seem to slip out of the joint, creating a really bad grinding sound.
Now I'm not too sure where to start with this so I'll try to give as much information as possible.

Heres a short timeline of my ownership of this car:

Bought car for 1200, 290,000 miles.​

Put about 3k Miles on it​

Axle broke in the manner described above.​

Buy and install new Axels, Upper and Lower Ball Joints, Wheel Bearings and Hubs, and a Manual Steering Rack​

Axle broke 3 Miles into test drive.​

Replaced axle and filled 3 motor mounts with Loctite PL x3 Construction Adhesive.​

Axle broke after maybe 120 Miles​

​

Now the car doesn't have the original engine. It's still a D15B2 and (only) has ~250,000 miles. The engine is missing alot of stuff like radiator fan wiring and front transmission mount.

I figured the first axle failure to be just normal wear over time, as the other cv boots are torn with old grease everywhere around. Only difference with this failure is that the axle shaft actually detached from the end that sits in the transmission.

The second failure happend durring a fairly light, uphill left turn at an intersection. This time the rubber boot held the axle shaft to the inward joint, but was twisted from spinning, and was unable to put any power down. It should be noted that my alignment was horrendous, the steering wheel sat 90 degrees while going straight and there was alot of toe-out.

3rd failure happened durring a u-turn with the steering wheel at full lock. It broke in the same way as the second, but I was able to put power down so I went to work and back, about 26 miles. This time I had the alignment pretty dialed in just needed to get the wheel to be straighter and reduce the toe-out. the picture shows the car going straight:

I think it should be noted that when I installed the new steering rack I centered it to the steering wheel, as in, from being straight it takes the same amount of turning to full lock on either side. The picture shows what I mean, the wheel at full lock either side:

I believe what happened was the driver side wheel was turned too far from the bad alignment and pulled the shaft out of the inward joint.


Heres how the axel looked before I took it to work

 

[John Corbs]

Another thing I think is possible, both side motor mounts were destroyed before filling them so maybe they were filled in a way that would have the engine sitting to the passenger side a little? this almost doesn't make sense cause after I got the driver side mount in the passenger side lined up perfect.

Another thing i think to consider is that the car seems to have been in an accident of some sorts. Both front wheels seem to have some negative camber, and I didn't notice anything off when I had the suspension stuff out.

Aswell as that the front mount holes on the transmission don't line up with the petrusion in the frame.
Before filling mounts:

After filling mounts:

Big apologies for the info dump any help is greatly appreciated. Are there any specs for, say, distance between the transmission and hub? Or anything concerning the frame/how the engine is supposed to sit in the frame?

 

[John Corbs]

you know there is different sizes for the driver side right?

1989-1991 Honda Drive Shaft Assembly, L 44306-SH3-A01 | Majestic Honda Automotive Parts


1990-1991 Honda Drive Shaft Assembly, L 44306-SJ4-970 | Majestic Honda Automotive Parts

are you sure you have a dx/lx shaft and not an si/ex

I believe so, I bought TRAKMOTIVE HO8055, which gives a compressed height of 35.55/ 903. I couldn't find another part number for it, but I found 2 other axles with the part number 44306-SH3-A01, CARDONE 604003 and CARDONE 664060 which have a height of 35.5625 and 35.625. Not too sure where to go with this, but I compared the 2 replacements with whats left of the original and they seem to be about the same length. Do you have any more info on the length difference?

get rack centered, proper alignment and how low is the car? Too low will cause this issue as well. Same thing happens on DA's when lowered too much.

Is how I centered the rack not correct? I measured 5.5" from the front jack point, but itll be hard to tell cause the car isn't on stock wheels. 185/65r14. I'll take a look at where the hubs sit in relation to the transmission one of these days.

I'm also gonna go look at a dx sedan at the junkyard to hopefully measure length from transmission to hub, and length of the axle.

 

[John Corbs]

Like the difference is the little rubber damper on the EX/Si axle which is required to have in ST/STS classes of Autocross.

So the rubber ring is only on the shorter axle? The original one had that ring on it but the 2 replacements didn't. Also haven't been able to pull the axle yet or go to the yard.

 

[John Corbs]

I am thoroughly confused with the different lengths and stuff. Please correct me if I'm wrong but the crx and hatchbacks use 23 splines on the hub side while the sedan use 26 splines? Could the 23 spline axles also be the longer ones? The length for a TRAKMOTIVE HO8071 (23 splines) is 35.63" , 906mm, a bit longer than the ones I have gotten for my car. I did however find CARDONE 664060, which has 26 splines and a length of 35.625. I'm planning on buying this one, and ofc fixing the alignment. Also wondering if the abs ring on this part is going to be a problem on my car. This axle also shares the SKU for a 91 Civic LX in the link that slo_ej8 provided.

One concern I have is that the transmission may not be what is supposed to be in the car. My factory service manual says the serial number is supposed to be L3-2xxxx, while the transmission in mine is in a different location and is SL3-5xxxx.

One more concern I have is that the face of the transmission end seems to have gotten very hot from driving. I'm gonna buy new seals anyways but I'm wondering if this could be a result of the wrong axles for whatever transmission is in the car.

 

[John Corbs]

HF CRX and STD 4 speed HB use the 23 spline outers, wrong seal (ZC/wagon) would be leaking if it was wrong.

Noted. I've Got a new a axle on the way. Ill fix the allignment and see how it goes