installing passenger's side axle problem...

acr2002 · Post by **acr2002** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:36 pm

This is on a 2000 Neon with a 2002 R/T swap. The boot on the axle had a tear, so all of the grease had emptied. Bought a new axle from Advance and tried putting it in...

Took a while to get it seated in the tranny but got that part done...

Got pretty much everything back together and went to tighten down the axle nut. When the nut "pulls" the axle towards the spindle, the abs ring (the thing with the teeth on it) hits the inner-upper part of the spindle and the axle will not spin freely. I started to think I just got the wrong axle, but when I look at the old axle, I can see where the abs teeth had been grinding against the spindle as well. It must have just grinded until it was able to clear. No parts place around here has any other axle in stock. Not to mention they all say "with or w/o ABS" and all seem to have the teeth...

Ok, so must be the wrong spindle? Well, the spindle has the ABS sensor mounted on it, so I don't see how it could be, but I don't know...

This is the axle I bought if that helps:

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp ... 7CGRP60007____

This same part # is showing it will fit a 2002 R/T OR a 2000 Neon M/T with or without ABS, so I don't see what the problem is.

Any idea of what is going wrong here?

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:56 pm

Sorry to say it, but I would of bought one from the dealership. I broke my axle at the track last Friday and I went searching for a cheap replacement thinking it would be fine. Then I realized all those auto sites (Oreilly's, Autozone, Advance Auto Pep Boy, Napa) Are messed up. The part numbers for the SRT-4 Neon and the reg 2.0 neon are all mixed up on some of them. Then I read about the ring that holds the boot in place would loosen up and grease would go everywhere on those cheap models. so I went with an OEM one from Modern Performance. I suggest you do the same thing.

You need to take pcitures man, I really don't know what you are talking about with the spindle and the ABS ring.. Spindle meaning knuckle? If the axle looks EXACTLY the same as your old one you should be fine... Are you sure you have the axle in all the way where you can't pull it out by hand?
(Just replace my drivers side axle yesterday)

acr2002 · Post by **acr2002** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 12:14 am

yeah, the knuckle is what it is hitting...the axle seated in the transmission fine.

like I said, the axle looks the same as the old one, but the old one was rubbing as well, the teeth are grinded down on the end towards the knuckle.

I can take pics if that will really help, I am just hoping someone else has ran into this before.

I don't have a problem with buying an OEM one, I just feel like I will run into the same problem since the old one *looks* to be a genuine Mopar axle.

acr2002 · Post by **acr2002** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:56 pm

been thinking about it all day and cannot come up with anything....

would a washer that fits on the axle to space it away from the knuckle a little mess up anything? just thinking out loud...

hul kogan · Post by **hul kogan** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 4:05 pm

Hmm. Can you post pictures of said issue? I need to visualize this.

acr2002 · Post by **acr2002** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 4:12 pm

hul kogan wrote:Hmm. Can you post pictures of said issue? I need to visualize this.

Yeah, but the car is torn apart at my parent's house. I am going over there later tonight to stare/cuss at it again and will take some pics.

Post by **occasional demons** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:36 pm

Is it possible it has the wrong hub/bearing installed in the knuckle? Aren't they wider after '02 or something like that?

acr2002 · Post by **acr2002** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:25 am

occasional demons wrote:Is it possible it has the wrong hub/bearing installed in the knuckle? Aren't they wider after '02 or something like that?

Now that would make a lot of sense, that HAS to be it. The swap came out of a 2002 and the car is a 2000. Here is what the knuckle is doing to the axleS (btw it is like this on BOTH sides-double checked just now):

Anyhow, I tried putting a shim on the axle where it meets the knuckle because I had no clue what else to do...thought it worked perfect since there was no binding or hitting the knuckle. Put everything back together and take it down the street. Drives great EXCEPT the ABS is now malfunctioning. If I hit the brakes hard (I needed to seat in the new pads) or floor it off the line, the ABS, TRAC and BRAKE lights all flash and chime. I can definitely lock up the brakes easily now.

SOOOO, I guess the ABS sensor is not "reading" the teeth on the axle correctly causing an error. Does that make sense? It seemed to line up extremely close to the way it was, but I don't know how picky that sensor is.

Let me know what you guys think. I could just grind down the teeth on the new axle like the above pic is and leave it alone. Everything was working fine like it was. Can you guys see any harm in that? Or do I just need to buy new hub assys? I am pretty broke right now so all of this sucks

Post by **occasional demons** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 4:09 pm

Yeah, if you have '02 axles in '00 hubs that is it. Prolly should have gotten an '00 MTX axle. They prolly won't exchange it now that it is used.

Is the tooth count the same as the old one?

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 4:50 pm

What exactly did you swap out of the 02? The knuckles/hubs or the engine?

acr2002 · Post by **acr2002** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:19 pm

occasional demons wrote:Yeah, if you have '02 axles in '00 hubs that is it. Prolly should have gotten an '00 MTX axle. They prolly won't exchange it now that it is used.

Is the tooth count the same as the old one?

Well, the website and the store both had the same part # for the 2000 and the 2002 neons. Are they just wrong? And I didn't count the teeth when I put it on...

Chad, I assume the knuckles and hubs are out of the same car as the motor/tranny/axles/etc. but I didn't do the swap. I bought the car this way. He did swap in the ABS to the car though.

As an update, though: my battery was tough to jump off (it had sat for over a week) and it ended up being completely dead this morning (I didn't think that had anything to do with it). But I took it down the road again and annot duplicate the problem. Tried to lock up the brakes, but the ABS kicked in perfectly....I don't know what to think now.