Is it possible to remove the front halfshaft from a Volvo 240 without removing the center bearing? As you know, anything bolted into the underside of a Volvo in fact bolts into a nut welded to the frame on the inside where no one can get at it. Well, I understand 800,000 miles is a lot to ask from a car but I'm a little annoyed that both the nuts holding my center bearing have broken free of their welds, rendering the center bearing stuck in place until I get an angle grinder and someone who can weld new nuts in place, at the side of the road on which it is currently parked, before it gets towed, in the rain (this is January in Seattle. It is going to rain every day until March.)

My differential-end u-joint exploded, you see. The only warning was a day of viibration. The yoke on the rear halfshaft is ruined, and those can't be removed from the shaft according to my shop manual.

Everyone I talk to says I can't just take a rear halfshaft from another '75 Volvo (if I can find one) and slot it in place, because it'll be unbalanced and just break again in a year. But no one knows how little money I have and how much I want this car back. And I'm a little tired of mechanics telling me I can only pursue the most expensive option because they want more money, and I'm a little tired of every Volvo forum being full of people who have never laid underneath a grease-soaked mud-caked thirty-five-year-old station wagon in the middle of a rainstorm on a busy road trying to duck tape a length of rubber tubing around the two ends of a fuel line severed in two places by the errant payload of a gravel truck just to get home so they can sleep and get to their horrible job at which they have to be in six hours, who just tell me to take it to a certified service professional. But I digress, I can't even find a replacement rear half-shaft, these following words have plagued me during my ownership of this car, seventy-five only. But if I find a driveshaft from a 140 all it needs to fit my car is a different flange on the differential side, which I can change easily. But first, I need to know if the front half-shaft can be removed from the center bearing without removing the center bearing from the underside of the car, or if I'm gonna need to buy an angle grinder and find someone who can weld. Who's willing to do it in the rain.

 

Hi, on some of my cars the back half of the shaft just pulled out, and on some it seemed retained by something. Did you try just pulling on it?

It's not true that the shafts are balanced as a unit. That would be nuts on something that fits together 12 different ways, and it would be really difficult to balance it as a unit and easy to balance as two different shafts. I've mixed and matched shafts and never had a problem, and I'm overly picky about things like vibration.

 

Here's a link to some of the original service manuals for Volvo dealerships it has alot of good info in it. I don't believe the shaft can be removed without removing the carrier bearing but these should hold the answer for you.

http://www.k-jet.org/documents/greenbooks/

 

It may be possible that you can get the front shaft off without removing the carrier but I haven't tried it. Basically the carrier bearing is press fit onto the front shaft. It then sits within the rubber boot but is not attached to the boot. So you might be able to get the front shaft off, but it may be difficult to get the replacement into the boot.

I would still try to remove the bolts holding the carrier. Even though the nuts have turned, you should be able to access them by removing the carpet in the behind the front seats. Might have to remove the seats.

Good luck.