Great site, hope you Volvo gurus can help me out.

My wifes '96 850 has a bad leak at the transmission to CV shaft seal. I have replaced the seal twice, changed the CV hoping the parts store CV was out of spec for seal surface, and it still leaks.

Heres the kicker. I noticed on the "old" CV that there was some play where the shaft goes into the tranny. Like .030 maybe. The shaft was resting on the bottom of the seal with a visible gap on the back (rear) side of the seal. After I replaced the shaft, I had my kid put it in gear and spin the wheel at idle (on stands of course) and the new shaft has a noticeable wobble at the tranny.

Am I looking at a trans swap or is there an internal bearing or something I can change? I'm not scared of the mechanical work part of this but i dont want to waste my time. BTW, If anyone knows where an exploded diagram of the trans is that would (maybe) help me figure out the problem.

Thanks.

 

Have you tried installing a Volvo seal and CV axle?

 

Yes, the last seal I put in was from a dealership. Funny thing, it was the same part I got from Rock Auto for $16 the time before, yet it cost $48.

As for the shaft, I checked the OD @ seal surface on 3 different shafts, they were all within .0005 ... and that still doesn't address the play in the transmission.

 

Nothing holds that in place but the splines inside the differential side gears. I am going to speculate there is no way that there is that much play in the bearings that the carrier rides on. I think you are dealing with wear in the splines, or wear causing the side gears not to be centered up properly. They would not have been really tight when new. I am not sure how much movement is normal, but if the seal won't work, I guess that tells you it's too much.

If there is something there, you'd have to disassmeble the transaxle to repair it, I think.