Swapping new half-shaft assembly?

[AMC of Houston]

Sounds like you got an aftermarket shaft - most of which use an inner joint case that is much shorter than the OEM -- so the inner joint pops out when the suspension travel goes a bit too far.  Have a pic of the inner joint?

[Artmodels]

Well, update to the saga.......

While under the front axle looking at it, I noticed that the front driveshaft was not parallel, and was touching the exhaust pipe now with a new shiny polish circling the driveahaft where touching(driveshaft looks to be about 3/4" off center on front end, which explains why it is now moved out to drivers side to touch exhaust pipe.. 

Also, cv boot on the inboard side of drivers side cv joint so only about an inch thick with all the ribbed rings touching each other, and the actual boot small end ringclip is actually just inside of the edge of the inner bearing carrier hub, almost inline with the large side boot clip ring is.
As for the passenger side cv joint, the now visible passenger side inner shaft triple bearing is actually sticking about a 1/4" out past end of inner carrier hub.

The previous owner who raised the eagle looks like they did a proper job by putting 1 inch tall, 3/4" diameter steel pipe pieces as spacers and longer bolts on the drivers side axle mount between axle top above the diff.  Then they put 1 inch extender tabs/flanges on the passenger side between diff tube and engine mount arm, with now 4 bolt places, instead of 2(if the axle casting were to be up against engine flange mount casting.

So the length of the cv should be ok(no need to have longer aftermarket shafts) as the diff housing has also been lowered 1 inch. 

Now, I just picked up the car from the repair shop after they had to take the engne out to replace leaking rear oil seal.  Within a few blocks in 4wd(as roads are snowy) the passenger cv bearing side popped out of the inner hub housing and started banging around.  Luckily I was already only driving 5mph, so no suspension damage, whew!

I am thinking that when they put the engine back in, they hooked up the  diff to engine mount parts wrong/inside out/backwards?

The main tell is that the front driveshaft has now started touching the exhaust pipe, angling about 3/4" to the drivers side.  Then, the spacers which join the passenger side axle mount to the engine mount also are angling down to the drivers side about 3/4" off vertical, as I think I remember seeing them vertical, when I last noticed a month ago. The drivers side 1" spacers between the upper plate and differential are also leaning a tiny bit, prob less than 1/8" from vertical down towards drivers side(over the 1" extended lengthpipe.

So this makes me suspect that if that diff axle were to shift back 3/4" to the passenger side, everything will be back to normal.

There is a thick steel rod that connects the passenger side of diff/axle back to a bolt on the tranny which is one bolt below and about 1 inch lower and about 3/4" inboard of the lower starter/tranny bolt.  It has two possible ways to mount, because of the 90 degree bent bolt end flange that mounts to tranny housing.  That is mounted correctly, as the pipe goes to the outboard of the 90 degree bend on the tranny housing.

So, I am guessing that the drivers side axle-to-engine mount flange was put on backqards? Is that even possible?  Or did the mounts possibly get bent, and they will have to be bent back towards passenger side?

Or is there sething else needing to be adjusted so you can shift the axle a little towards the passenger side?  I can't find pics of how the flanges should be, anyone with info is most appreciated.  Also I noticed the fat motor mount now is on the passenger side between engine and frame, and the thinner motor mount is on drivers side.  Did they put these on backwards too? Because if the thin motor mount is swapped sides, that would definitely shift the whole engine/axle assembly to the passenger side by about 1/2". Rhat would mot fix the driveshaft rubbing the exhaust, but perhaps doing that, as well as shifting axle in relation to motor would do the trick?

Appreciate in advance all you guys' knowledge base to try to figure this out.

[AMC of Houston]

Can I assume your car is a 6-cyl??    I can go out and take some pics of my diff and engine mount claptrap -- its still all stock tho.  Car just happens to be parked on my lift.    If yours is a 6-banger, I'm surprised they removed the engine to do the rear main - seems a lot of extra work over doing it in the car.

[Artmodels]

Yes, It's a 6 cylinder.  I told them they could just raise engine to remove oil pan, but they had issues trying to get pan off, so they ended up just taking engine out.

[AMC of Houston]

Ahh; they missed a step.  You also unbolt and lower the crossmember a bit for pan clearance.

[Artmodels]

Update, I measured the difference between the lengths from axle/carrier hub interface out to the outer lower suspension bolt under the ball joint.  The drivers side was 11.5" and passenger side 14.1".  So the axle definitely needs to be moved over 1.25" towards passenger side to be equal .

Does anyone know how far in the triple ball joint sits into the inner carrier hub when car is sitting normally on ground?  Want to make sure both cv axles have their ball joints far enough into the carrier hubs.  It seems that even if I center the axle, those ball joints will he out at the outside edge of the carrier hubs.

[djm3452004]

This problem stumps me.  The front axle/differential side-to-side location is set exactly by the (2) 7/16" diameter bolts that secure through a bracket that bolts directly to the engine block  (see attached photo).  There is really no way the axle (and by association the CVs) can move 1.25" in either direction, provided the axle/differential is bolted to its mounting brackets like it should be.

If you look into your driver's wheel well and see anything other than what I've pictured in the attachment, you've got some serious weirdness going on.

Perhaps a photo could help us diagnose?

Hope this helps --

David