General:

One of the common issues on the Mk2 Galaxy on higher mileage vehicles, the inner CV joint rolling surfaces wear, leading to rotational slop and play in the joint, and a harsh transmission of drive to the front wheels, felt either as knocking or vibration through the steering wheel or chassis under load. The inner CV boots/ joints can be renewed separately to the complete driveshaft, *BE WARNED* however that whilst not particularly difficult, it is one of the most messy tasks you are likely to undertake on a car due to the quantity and consistency of the CV grease used in each joint. For this reason, and the fact that new aftermarket shafts are cheap, many people prefer to just renew the whole shaft and save the hassle. If you still want to continue and repair your existing shaft assembly, read on!

The driveshaft arrangement used on the Mk2 Galaxy is, in my opinion quite clever in that, unlike on many cars, the driveshafts can be removed from the vehicle without the need to lose/drain any gearbox oil. This is because the nearside shaft bolts to a separate flange which remains in the gearbox when the shaft is removed, whilst the offside shaft can be disconnected complete from the gearbox stub shaft*. The Haynes manual suggests that there are a couple of different types of inner CV joint used over the production lifetime of the Mk2 Galaxy, it possibly also varies with engine/gearbox type and manufacture- e.g, Ford (2.3 petrol) or VW (TDI/ V6 petrol) power-plant- some are of the tripod type and some of the ball and cage type. The inner joints on my '54 plate 130ps TDI 6 speed manual (VW based engine and transmission) are of the tripod type, so that is what I cover here.

(*-At least on the 6 speed manual and VW sourced (Jatco) auto boxes, I am not sure if this also applies to the Ford VXT75 5 speed manual transmission!)

The procedure for both nearside and offside shafts is similar, the only difference being that the offside (outer) shaft bolts to the intermediate shaft which runs along the back of the engine block into the transmission, unlike the nearside shaft which bolts directly to the gearbox flange. The said intermediate shaft is also a common problem on higher mileage vehicles- see see the separate section below. It is fair to say that the inner joints can be removed/ renewed without having to remove the driveshaft from the vehicle by leaving it installed at the wheel hub end, however, for best access and working space it's best to remove the shaft from the vehicle to work on it. I have changed the inner CV boots on both my nearside and offside shafts, for the nearside one I did not remove the shaft from the vehicle but for the offside one I did, purely to improve access and make the job easier!

My reason for dismantling the inner CV joints was to renew the inner CV boots which, if my Galaxy is anything to go by are prone to failure (splitting) at the weakest point- see image 1 below. The boot has a split forming around the entire circumference of the 'small' end just inside of where the smaller of the two boot clips sits. When I bought my Galaxy the nearside one had already failed (and had been so for some time judging by the quantity of hard CV grease caked over the chassis and gearbox in the vicinity of the joint) and the offside one didn't have long to go (at time of purchase my Gal had done 83k). Having said this though, the outer CV boots, although original appeared to be fine with no cracks or splitting to suggest they were imminently going to go the same way. Though it was only the CV boots I was renewing, the procedure for complete renewal of the joint is the same as it has to be stripped to get the old boot off and the new one on.

*I am aware of the existence of 'stretchy' type CV boots which, with use of a special tool which expands the boot over the CV joint onto the shaft, avoids disassembly of the joint. However, as on this design of joint the joint is purely held together by the CV boot and clips, and the fact that the driveshaft has to be disconnected at one end or the other to do any work anyway, make this a seem like a pointless exercise as it isn't really saving any time or effort!*

                   [attachimg=10]
                   ^image 1

As ever, *PLEASE NOTE* that the fastener sizes I have noted are what is fitted to my Galaxy, there may be variation with production year, engine/ gearbox type etc. Also, some earlier Mk2 Galaxies had a cast aluminium support bracket for the intermediate driveshaft bearing instead of the pressed steel plate type shown here.

                                           
Procedure:
*Ensure you have plenty of brake cleaner and old rag/ cloth handy!*

So firstly, with the front wheels still on the ground, crack off the front wheel bolts (19mm) and hub centre driveshaft bolt (27mm)- circled blue in image 2 which will be very tight and need a breaker bar or impact gun to shift (don't worry about loosening the hub bolt if you plan to leave the driveshaft on the vehicle whilst you do the job). With this done you can jack up the front end of the car (not on the sills obviously!), I only jacked up the side I was working on but you may prefer to jack up both sides, this has the advantage that you can move the steering to aid access/ removal of the shaft, however, as I relied on putting the vehicle in gear with one wheel on the ground to stop the shaft rotating whilst loosening/ tightening up the driveshaft inner CV joint flange bolts, jacking up both sides would have been a disadvantage as the opposite side wheel (to the shaft you are working on!) needs to be on the ground for this method to work- unless you have an assistant who can apply the front brakes as required to stop the driveshaft rotating. Note that this is not an issue if you are removing the offside shaft complete with intermediate shaft from the gearbox stub, as you do not need to unbolt the inner CV joint flange bolts from the intermediate shaft.

                      [attachimg=1]
                      ^image 2

With the vehicle jacked up I placed an axle stand under the front subframe under one of the subframe to body mounting bolts, and removed the wheel.

IF an undertray is fitted to the vehicle then this will need to be removed- mine doesn't have one at the time of writing so I can't post any pictures of this but it is held on by 4x 10mm bolts, 2 on the nearside and 2 on the offside which thread into the chassis legs and 2x 10mm nuts at the rear which fit to rubber vibration dampers which in turn thread into the front subframe.

With this done I then removed the two 8mm internal hex key bolts that hold the ball joint to the wheel knuckle, circled green in image 3. The ball joint can now be levered out of the knuckle using an old screwdriver or something between the ball joint flange and knuckle itself, which will allow the knuckle to be pulled outwards towards the wheel arch opening.

                     [attachimg=2]
                     ^image 3

The next step depends on which side shaft you are removing:

Nearside Shaft:
The nearside shaft bolts directly to the gearbox flange, and is held on by 6 x 12mm XZN (internal triple square) bolts (4 of which are circled pink in image 4 which shows the nearside inner joint) which need to be removed. These will come off with an impact gun, or if you have an assistant able to apply the brake as required to stop the shaft rotating you can use a normal ratchet or breaker bar. The shaft will have to be rotated in turn to access and remove the bolts, the space isn't fantastic but I didn't have any trouble getting onto the bolts using a long XZN socket. I didn't have an assistant so put the vehicle in gear to stop the shaft rotating, this will only work if one of the front wheels (i.e, on the side opposite to the shaft you are working on) is on the ground though! It's a bit of a fiddle to do it this way because you have to reposition the shaft multiple times to be able to access all of the bolts.

I believe with the inner CV joint flange unbolted and lower arm ball joint disconnected from the knuckle, you should now be able to pull the knuckle/strut out enough to be able to get the shaft at the gearbox end to drop and clear the transmission casing, either so that the shaft can be removed from the vehicle or the job done in situ. If there is not enough space to do this then it may (I can't recall!) be necessary to unbolt the anti-roll bar drop link where it bolts to the strut to allow the strut to be pulled out further. On my Galaxy the drop link is secured by an 18mm nut. As the droplink ball stud is likely to turn when you crack the nut free, you will need to hold the stud firm whilst releasing the nut, on my vehicle the stud is made to accept an 8mm XZN internal socket.

                    [attachimg=3]
                    ^image 4

Offside Shaft including Intermediate Shaft:
If it's the offside shaft you are removing then you don't have to separate the inner CV joint from the intermediate shaft,  instead you can remove the whole assembly complete- if you are working on this side it's probably a good idea to do this anyway as you can then check the condition of the intermediate shaft splines and the corresponding splines of the gearbox stub. To remove the offside shaft simply unbolt the bearing carrier flange bolts (2 x 13mm bolts, circled red in image 5). As already mentioned, on some earlier Mk2 Galaxies the pressed steel bearing carrier flange is replaced by a somewhat larger cast aluminium bracket which bolts to the transmission casing itself, it serves exactly the same purpose however, supporting the intermediate shaft where it attaches to the inner CV joint on the outer shaft. With the flange unbolted, the intermediate shaft will pull away from the gearbox stub with a little resistance, if levering is necessary you can lever between the bearing carrier flange and corresponding mounting bracket.

                     [attachimg=4]
                     ^image 5

With the driveshaft disconnected from the gearbox end, assuming you are removing the driveshaft from the vehicle to do the work you can remove the driveshaft/outer CV joint from the hub. Be warned, it's very tight and needs a good whack to get it moving! Being that the 27mm hub bolt must be replaced if it is removed, I found the best way to start the shaft moving was to part wind the hub bolt back into the end of the driveshaft and hammer the head of it with a lump hammer, once the shaft has moved a little way the bolt will bottom out on the hub, when this happens remove it and use an old bar or socket to finish driving the shaft out.

If you've removed the complete offside shaft you should be looking at something resembling image 6:
                     [attachimg=5]
                     ^image 6

Alternatively, if it's the nearside shaft you've removed or just the outer portion of the offside shaft (having left the intermediate shaft in place) then you should be looking at something like image 7 below:

                     [attachimg=6]
                     ^image 7
   
To remove the inner CV joint outer casing, you need only remove the old CV boot clips, they should be easily removed by twisting the crimped portions of the clips (circled orange in image 7) with a pair of pliers until the clip either snaps or slackens enough for the end to detach from the lugs. Unlike the outer CV joints which are retained by circlips on the shaft, the inner joint is held together purely by the CV boot and resistance of the clips! (obviously when installed in the vehicle the shaft is held firm by the gearbox at one end and hub at the other so it can't separate) If the joint is being re-used it is prudent to mark the outer casing relative to the shaft with a punch dot or paint dot so that the tripod/rollers can be refitted in the same positions as removed, obviously for this to work the tripod must also be marked relative to the shaft before removal! With the clips removed you can pull away the outer casing, which should leave you with the tripod on the end of the shaft as per image 8, and muchos grease!  ???  The images I have used here are from after I cleaned all the old grease out and before I dumped a load of new grease in!

                       [attachimg=7]
                       ^image 8

To remove the old boot, the tripod has to be removed from the shaft. It is retained by the circlip visible on the end of the shaft in image 8, and once the circlip is removed should just need a little tap with a blunt chisel or similar (against the centre ring of the tripod which slides over the shaft- DO NOT hammer the rollers themselves!) to slide it off of the shaft. With the tripod removed you can then remove the old boot and clean the remaining old grease from the components, leaving you with the tripod, outer casing and driveshaft/ outer CV joint as per image 9 below. If you try hard enough and orientate them correctly, it is possible to remove the 3 rollers from the tripod, however, there should be no need to do this.   

                       [attachimg=14]
                       ^image 9

The next image (image 10) shows the inside of the joint outer casing, the yellow highlighted area (and the grey areas within it) shows where the wear (!) takes place in the joint, basically the constant motion of the tripod rollers against the machined channels of the outer casing will eventually wear grooves in the casing resulting in rotational play. Having covered only 86k at this stage, the joints on my Galaxy are still in good condition.

                       [attachimg=8]
                       ^image 10

Obviously if you are renewing the joint the old tripod and casing will be scrap. Time to put it all back together. The CV boot kit applicable for my Galaxy was Ford finis (part number) 1366577 and is pictured below (image 11), it comes with the boot, large and small boot clips, the circlip for the tripod and a sachet of grease, which you should aim to use all of in the one joint on assembly. If you have removed the driveshaft from the hub then you MUST also renew the large 27mm headed hub bolt, Ford's finis for this is 7201538, it is not included in the boot kit.

                       [attachimg=9]
                       ^image 11

So to reassembly. Don't do what I did previously and stick the tripod back on before putting the boot onto the shaft! Slide the boot up the shaft, then you can refit the tripod (put some CV grease on the splines of the shaft before you do this). If you marked it before disassembly, ensure you put it back in the same place. Fit the new circlip supplied in the boot kit into the groove at the end of the shaft, and then load the grease into the outer casing as well as onto the tripod rollers, it will flow and find it's way into the rollers of it's own accord but try to cover all of the working surfaces, and as mentioned earlier, try to use all of the grease in the sachet. Interestingly the grease ford supply for these joints is an orange/ yellowy colour instead of the more traditional black CV grease. With the grease applied you can put the outer casing over the tripod and locate the CV boot A) In the recessed part of the shaft on the small end- there are two recesses in the shaft, the boot seats in the one closest to the inner CV joint itself, circled orange in image 9 (meaning that you should still be able to see the second recess once the boot is properly located) and B) In the locating notches on the 3 'corners' of the outer casing (2 of these notches are circled light green in image 9). If you marked the shaft position relative to the joint outer casing before disassembly ensure you put them back together in the same place! With this done install the clips into their respective grooves on the boot, noting that the 'tail' on the outside of the clip should face the direction of forward rotation with the shaft installed (this is supposed to reduce the chance of the clip springing open when the driveshaft is rotating). When you are happy everything is located properly you can crimp up the two clips, there are dedicated tools for this but in truth I found a pair of carpenters pincers ideal for the task, do not force the crimp together too hard or you may cut through the metal! Just ensure the two 'sides' of the crimp at the base have been closed up enough to almost touch each other and that they are tight- you should not be able to rotate the clips on the boot once crimped! If unsure, take a look at the large clip on the outer CV joint on the same shaft for comparison (the small clips on the outer joint on my Galaxy are a different style and do not have crimps).

Intermediate Shaft Spline Wear Checking:
With the CV joint reassembled, if it is the offside shaft you have been working on you can check the condition of the intermediate shaft gearbox end splines before reassembly. I shan't go into detail here as Mirez has already covered that in depth in his own excellent article here. Fortunately in my case as images 12,13 & 14 below show, the gearbox stub and intermediate shaft splines were in good condition with no fretting type corrosion or red dust. There was some wear present, to be expected after 86k (It's difficult to see but I've circled in orange one of the splines in image 13- you need to view the image full-size), you can see a 'step' in the width of the spline, the worn section is thinner than the unworn section. Obviously the wear mostly occurs on one side of the splines unless you do half of your mileage in reverse gear! From what I could see the wear was more apparent for some reason on the intermediate shaft splines than the gearbox stub shaft! For all the ill treatment suffered by my Galaxy at the hands of previous 'repairers' or owners, somebody somewhere along the line previously had had the good sense to apply CV grease into the gearbox stub to intermediate shaft joint which had no doubt prevented fretting and reduced wear. Just as a guide, this amount of wear gave about 1mm of rotational movement of the intermediate shaft relative to the gearbox stub, so if you've got a lot more than that then fear the worst!

I gave the splines of the gearbox stub and intermediate shaft a wipe and clean off with some brake cleaner before reassembly, the joint had been greased with CV grease previously which is fine, I chose to regrease it with silicone grease which is thick and waterproof and should stop any fretting corrosion. NOTE that the joint has an O-ring seal (not visible in the pictures) to keep dirt and water out, this seats in a groove on the the outside of the gearbox stub shaft and seals against the inside surface of the pressed steel cover plate which covers the end of the splines on the intermediate shaft (this cover is an interference fit on the shaft and is removable- it's the gold coloured part in images 12 & 13). Make sure this O-ring is in good condition and properly seated in it's groove before refitting the shaft, it is listed as a separate part if a new one is required- number 21 on the intermediate shaft parts diagram.

     [attach=11]      [attach=12]      [attach=13]
         image 12^              image 13^                 image 14^

Intermediate Shaft Support Bearing Check:
Whilst on the subject of the intermediate shaft, the support bearing is an item which is likely to wear and require replacement at higher mileage, and it's location is fairly exposed, although the undertray should protect from the worst of the elements- if fitted! To check the bearing condition with the shaft off of the vehicle, rotate the bearing outer ring by hand (or the complete carrier plate if the setup is the same as mine as the bearing and plate is one complete assembly), it should spin smoothly with no roughness, a little 'play' in the bearing is normal (i.e, you can wiggle the bearing outer ring slightly from side to side relative to the inner ring), but if there is a lot of play and/or roughness then the bearing is probably fairly worn and on it's way out. Whilst I did not tackle this, renewal of this bearing will require the intermediate shaft to be disconnected from the outer shaft, as in image 12 (the bearing is housed in the plate at the bottom of the shaft in the same image). The bearing is an interference fit on the shaft and is also held in place by a circlip (not visible in the picture) which will require removal, as will the gold coloured protective cover visible in images 12 & 13. This cover is an interference fit on the shaft and will need to be removed in order to slide the bearing off of the shaft once released. With the circlip removed the use of a bench press and bearing separating tool will allow the bearing (which has to be replaced with the plate it sits in, they are one unit and not available as separate parts) to be removed and a new one fitted- the bearing is either item 29 or 33 on the intermediate shaft parts diagram, depending on which type of housing bracket is fitted.

General Notes on Driveshaft Re-Fitting:
When refitting the driveshafts to the vehicle, as usual it's the reverse of removal. Just note that the hub splines on the outer CV joint are very tight going back into the hub, use some grease and a new hub bolt and wind the bolt in to pull the joint into the hub. Get it part way in and then finish tightening the hub bolt once you have refitted the ball joint to the knuckle, the drop link (if disturbed) to the strut, bolted the wheel back on and got the vehicle off of the axle stand(s)/ jack(s) and back onto the ground!

Torque Settings:


Parts Diagrams:

Links to parts diagrams for the driveshafts and gearbox stub/ intermediate shaft:
Driveshafts (dependent on transmission variant- click on specific variant to enlarge specific diagram- Economy 6 is the 6 speed manual and AG5 the autobox used with the TDI and V6)
Intermediate shaft & stub (this is for the 6 speed manual gearbox- the AG5 auto is different again)

*PLEASE NOTE*, the diagrams for the driveshafts in the link cover all models (petrol, diesel etc.), I cannot state which gearbox/ engine configuration each diagram is applicable to. The intermediate shaft diagram is applicable to the 6 speed manual MT350 transmission. Please DO NOT rely on the finis (part) numbers quoted in the links to be accurate, the diagrams are intended as a guide only.

And finally, though I've tried to correct any mistakes I made typing this, errors and omissions excepted!