XSeries-forum

I remember saying on here months ago how I couldn't understand how a driveshaft could disengage/come out. Well now I do understand how it happens. My son has just replaced everything on the rear of his 4.4l and during the process allowed one of the rear hubs to drop low enough to allow the locking ring on the diff end to pop out but not far enough for the drive shaft to drop. The extra inch the driveshaft was out of the diff was not noticed and was taken up by the UJs on reassembly. It wasn't until he was out on the road that he then lost drive coming out of a junction. Pushing the driveshaft back into the diff so  that the locking ring could do what it was designed to do cured the problem.
I just mention this from an interest point of view.

Hi
Thanks for the explanation, I guess you have to be extra careful when taking apart and rebuilding the rear suspension etc.

Its amazing how an inch can cause such problems, it was lucky there was no damage to the driveshaft or anything else, as it would still be connected either to the road wheel or the diff.

Glad it sorted once the driveshaft was pushed back in and the locking ring was secured.

Thanks for the update - this is linked to my post a few months back. The car has been absolutely fine since and it was a bizarre thing to happen. Going off the receipts I was given at the time of purchase, it had the bushes replaced and had covered very few miles since - so could well be the cause.

I've had this on both the front and the rear of my x5
the front one was after i'd changed the front cv joint and hadn't noticed that the joint wasn't in correctly I soon found out when it lost drive (again)
the rear one i only discovered when i had the car on the ramp to change the gearbox oil ..... whilst waiting for it all to drain out i had a look around and noticed the rear shaft was not sitting properly in the dif
some gentle persuasion of the large mallet kind popped it back in