Transmission question

[array]

I have a restored bus that I and my son have been working on for the past 4 years and finally have it ready to start using it. Been taking it on short trips around town and all was going well until something in the transmission broke. Pretty load crack and then sounded like something was banging around in the transmission. After a ride on a flatbed, the bus is back home (If you don't have AAA you should consider it). We rebuilt everything on the bus and yet when it came to the trans I drained the oil and looked for metal. No metal was found so we cleaned it up and added transmission fluid for our amazing VW shop here in Bakersfield (Barts Parts) and put it back in the bus. I will be pulling the motor and trans this weekend.

Specs on the bus:
1835 with duel Kadron's

I believe the trans that is in it is a 6 rib. I couldn't get a picture from the top, but it has the eye bolt on top and it feels like 6 ribs.

[alman72]

were those old or new pics?
I don't know your knowledge level, but others reporting a similar problem have discovered they did not torque down the cv joints and had one jump free. It is something that would be pretty easy to see if you looked under the bus, so that is why I asked if the pics were new, or if you looked under after the initial bang

[array]

[mikedjames]

If you purchased the axles complete - are you 100% sure they are bus axles
Several Porsche driveshafts fit the bolt pattern and while some are the correct length, some are different.
What might happen is when you go over a bump the balls pop out of the CV joint as it is pulled apart because the shaft is too short. But that would show as the CV boot twisting or splitting too.


Alternatively this is a CV joint breakage caused by misassembly with the balls in the wrong grooves in the machined ends of the shaft. There is a right way and a wrong way. In the right way all the balls move freely and the shaft can run at quite large angles , but the balls easily fall out if you flex the joint too far. Which is easy to do by mistake while installing the drive shaft. Then you put it back together wrong by mistake...

In the wrong assembly the balls will go in and the CV joint drives the axle all the time the joint is within a few degrees of straight.

So they will work but possibly give way with a bang as soon as the suspension flexes while you drive along.


Some of the Porsche style shafts are the correct length but have different pitch splines on the end , something that ends up expensive when you come to replace the CV joints and find the splines are the wrong pitch for new CV with 211-xxx-yyy part codes intended for a bus.
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Ancient vehicles and vessels

1974 VW T2 : Devon Eurovette camper with 1641 DP T1 engine, Progressive carb, full flow oil cooler, EDIS crank timed ignition.
Engine 1: 40k miles (rocker shaft clip fell off), Engine 2: 30k miles (rebuild, dropped valve). Engine 3: a JK Preservation Parts "new" engine, aluminium case: 26k miles: new top end.
Gearbox rebuild 2021 by Bears.

1979 Westerly GK24 24 foot racer/cruiser yacht Forethought of Gosport.
1973 wooden Pacer sailing dinghy

[SGKent]

check the CV joints first.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin