Leveling kit install has kicked my a$$!

[Big E Tacocat]

Do you have a pic of what you think failed? Maybe I missed it as I was looking at the PDFs and your pic. I already have odd (scary) sounds coming from the front end and haven't even installed my leveling kit yet.

see how the the clip in the first pic isn’t round and the second pic it’s round? First pic is inboard (not damaged) second pic is the outboard. I’m assuming when it was pressed together it wasn’t fully seated or the wrong clip was used. I’d suggest taking it to the dealer so you can get it warrantied. You won’t know it’s damaged unless you pull it apart. I’m saving the bad axle in case this becomes a recall. Probably won’t help but I’m a little salty over it so I’ll try

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[Mattwings]

Definitely odd wear and would be warrantied if the dealer had done the work it seems. I am too much of a suspension geometry nerd to do any level or lift without replacing the arms/ball joints to restore the correct geometry. I had a 2” level kit on my 06 LJ and even with the SFA it changed the steering angles enough to affect the handling and tire wear. By 60k miles it was somewhat thrashed and 90k it needed everything replaced (including two sets of tires in 50k miles.

 

[Evolkidbell]

see how the the clip in the first pic isn’t round and the second pic it’s round? First pic is inboard (not damaged) second pic is the outboard. I’m assuming when it was pressed together it wasn’t fully seated or the wrong clip was used. I’d suggest taking it to the dealer so you can get it warrantied. You won’t know it’s damaged unless you pull it apart. I’m saving the bad axle in case this becomes a recall. Probably won’t help but I’m a little salty over it so I’ll try

This actually looks normal. Typically one end of the half shaft is a clip that the whole joint needs to come apart to remove the clip. The opposite end usually has a spring loaded clip. Pull hard enough and the shaft will pull apart with the CV assembled. I’ve seen Nissan spring clips look worse than that. The gouge would be initial assembly damage. Pretty common.
I have seen a few with a spring clip on both ends, but usually one end is hard clipped for plunge control.
Looking at the picture of the outer Joint, was the clip installed? If it wasn’t, it would explain why the joint was damaged, came apart,
There have been a few CV failures after a lift that could have been blamed on the same issue.
Flexing the suspension, even past the normal travel shouldn’t pull the CV apart.

 

[Big E Tacocat]

This actually looks normal. Typically one end of the half shaft is a clip that the whole joint needs to come apart to remove the clip. The opposite end usually has a spring loaded clip. Pull hard enough and the shaft will pull apart with the CV assembled. I’ve seen Nissan spring clips look worse than that. The gouge would be initial assembly damage. Pretty common.
I have seen a few with a spring clip on both ends, but usually one end is hard clipped for plunge control.
Looking at the picture of the outer Joint, was the clip installed? If it wasn’t, it would explain why the joint was damaged, came apart,
There have been a few CV failures after a lift that could have been blamed on the same issue.
Flexing the suspension, even past the normal travel shouldn’t pull the CV apart.

Interesting I haven’t messed with many cv axles. The clip was in the groove when I finally found the problem. But I didn’t know there was a problem with the axle and tried to re-insert it for a while before I cleaned everything up looking for a problem. It’s possible I pushed it back in during that. I’m just guessing what happened, if that clip was only half installed I’d guess they would’ve been locked together tight and it never would’ve come apart. Looking at the condition of the splines I’m not sure how it separated. If it wasn’t the clip what did all that damage?

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