2005 town country

[Cntrysthbst]

2005 town country limited, 3.8,...

was driving and came to a stop for someone turning, after he turned pushed gas pedal down to go, i heard one of the tires cherp alittle and heard a loud clunk, it has no reverse or forward gears, the rpm gauge shows its moving but is not, reving it up shows higher rpm, putting it in park keeps it from rolling. there were no codes, no leaks, everything with the engine and transmission worked great prior to this. about 100,000 miles on it. anyone know what happened? and what i should do to fix it? like used or new, or rebuilt? new radiator? etc? and will a different transmission need programmed to the main computer? thanks

update...the transmission seems to work, it will shift gears but no drive when reving up, putting it in park when at a low rpm you can hear it clicking. i checked underneath and is leaking fluid from the right drive axle when pulled out, i can move the passenger side axle in and out, like its not locked in place. (right/passenger axle shaft to transmission area) i cant really seem to lock it back in either. the axle shaft doesnt seem to be broken, neither of them do. its just the right side has come out. any thoughts? does this still mean i need a transmission? thanks, still no codes after getting it back home.

[Alphabravo]

If the axle popped out you won't go anywhere because the differential sends power to the side of least resistance. This happened to me once on a Ford Escort. You will need to align the splines before you try to push it back in. But before you do, I recommend pulling it out completely to check if the retaining clip or ring is damaged or missing. Be careful, when you pull it out because a lot of fluid witll leak out, unless most of it leaked out already, which it probably has.

The good news is that if in fact the axle popped out, then it will be a cheap fix.
Good luck.

[Cntrysthbst]

fluid did leak out, is this clip something that comes on the driveshaft? cant remember... cause i replaced the drive axle on that side about 9 months ago with one from advanced auto and wondering now if that was a mistake buying aftermarket...and if the pin/clip is missing, can i put a magnet in the side? would it have dropped in the pan? and if it is still on the driveshaft? replace the driveshaft? thanks for the hopefully good news by the way...

[Alphabravo]

Sorry I couldn't find a better picture, but if you look at the top image on the left you'll see a notch cut into the splines. In that notch there should be a retainer that looks like a c-clip. It should come with the axle.


If it is missing, it probably never had it. I've had a friend buy an axle once and it was missing the clip. I doubt that it fell in. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong, but I never heard of the clip fall into the pan.

Since you said you changed it 9 months ago, it probably wasn't pushed & locked in the first time, which happens. Like I said, it happened with my Escort. If the axle still has the clip, I don't think you'll need to replace the axle.

Good luck.

[Cntrysthbst]

k, pulled axle off, its clipped in, however the axleshaft broke in half, like 2 inches cut off with a butter knife, to much torque?...the other piece, about 2 inches long is still in the transmission. is there a way to get that out? do i have to take the housing it fits into off?

from your pics..the side with the clip, you see the grooves and then the smooth area that the seal rests on, right between the grooves and the smooth surface is where it split in half, would like to upload photo but dont know how...

[Cntrysthbst]

if i was to take the drivers side axle off would i be able to knock the passenger shaft piece out? i tried a heavy duty magnet, no good...i believe the snap ring is still going its job...

[Alphabravo]

Ouch. That's over my knowledge. I am pretty certain that you will not have access to it even if you pull the other side out. perhaps the housing does need to come out. Maybe a tranny specialist will chime in. Good luck.

[Cntrysthbst]

after research i found you cant get to it by pulling the other axle. so, what i did...i took the small housing off (4 bolts) that the driveshaft connects through thats bolted on the transmission, got me alittle closer to the broken piece. lots of fluid came out. i stuffed papertowels in where the housing was so nothing would get into the transmission. i drilled about 1/2 deep hole in the axle piece, used an extention magnet to get all the small pieces of metal from drilling driveshaft piece...screwed a long lag bolt into the hole i drilled...put lag bolt in the hole on my pry bar and used a hammer to pop it out. it worked. i came out. think i might have mooned-walked back into the garage..lol, anyways had to go buy some atf-rtv stuff at same place i got drive axle, cleaned small housing piece, put atf stuff on, placed housing, tightened bolts and put original drive shaft back on, then put rest of stuff back together. put some transmission fluid in it. drove it up the street to have the tire pressure monitor valve stem snap off and got a flat. transmission seemed to work great but i have to much fluid in it, put 2 quarts in cause it looked like alot came out. will have to take some out tomorrow after i get tire pressure thing replaced and tire back on. the transmission seemed to shift hard, prob to much fluid.

after i get the fluid at the right level, is the bcm/pcm/tcm ok with what happened or will i need to pull the fuse, or go to the dealer and them flash it?

i called advanced customer service and they pointed finger at gvs drive shaft company concerning questions...i then called them and have never got a call back. advanced auto said i have a lifetime warranty so can swap out if want. so basically if we want to save some money, it will pretty much be made in china like the 68 dollar drive shaft that snapped or go to the dealer and spend 3 hundred dollars for one. i read the dealers get alot of their parts overseas and slaps a mopar sticker on them. the dealers warranty is horrible with how much they charge, and always blames something else for the reasoning of a defective part they sell. anyways,

weither or not stickers are slapped on mopar products or not, is mopar still better than buying aftermarket? wondering do i swap it or go buy from dealer concerning this driveshaft?

thanks for all your help!

[Alphabravo]

Nice Job! I was thinking of drilling tapping it but I didn't suggest it because of the metal shavings. You seemed to have found a good solution.
If you had the battery disconnected while you were doing this, the module probably lost its memory and maybe that's why it is shifting hard. You shouldn't need to flash it, it will just shift a little hard until it re-learns your driving habits.

[Cntrysthbst]

Forgot about that...seems like the transmission is shifting good now. Taking off slow it shifts hard sometimes for some reason but did that before. Taking off faster it shifts fine.

Thank you very much for helping out on this!!!