Dif gears/lock rings fell down

Hello,
I am new to this forum, did a little searching, but did not find anything on this particular issue. My 2002 P5 made it to 268k miles when it finally met its demise. I pulled the motor and trans(Its a manual trans by the way), rebuilt the motor and installed a new clutch. finally got it all put back together and running. I went to reinstall the CV axles and they would not seat all the way in. So I pulled them back out and start to investigate. The following picture shows what I discovered. One of the dif gears had fallen out of place. I was able to push it back up but the spline/luck ring was loose and I was not able to reinstall the cv axle. I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to transmissions. what is your helpful input on this? Teach me o great one.

Mightyprotege said:

... I was able to push it back up but the spline/luck ring was loose and I was not able to reinstall the cv axle...

Click to expand...

If by "splined/lock ring" you mean this,..



Then you may only need to hit it harder.

If your fallen gear is back in place but your axle won't click in then you need a block of wood over the end of the axle and a sledge hammer to get the split ring/c-clip to pop in.

I don't remember much about the fallen gear but if your gear is lined up like normal your axle should go in.
I do remember that one side in particular was a bastard to get back in.

You're supposed to use this, (or a long flat head screwdriver) to hold everything when you remove both axles at the same time.