Friends got a '96 honda civic ex. I help replaced the front suspension parts:
wheel bearings, upper control arms, lower ball joints, and outer tie rods. Also, replaced the front brakes and pads. While still having the car on jacks, I decided to see if there's any noise or grind after the replacements. I put the car in drive and the driver side axle doesn't spin while the passenger side axle spins but the wheel hub and rotor doesn't spin. Try accelerating and still both wheel hubs do not spin. Had to put car into netural and shut of engine to stop passenger axle from spinning. I checked the passenger CV axle and the boot looks fine but the axle is not stiff. I can move it around like it pop out of it's socket. Could this be a possible broken CV axle?

A problem that I ran into while replacing the bearing was the outer end of the cv shaft will not slide into the hub shaft/spindal. From all the bearings that I replaced this is the first cv shaft that will not slide in. I had to force the shaft in by hammering the wheel hub assembly while attached to the knuckle.

I need some suggestions as to what could be causing this problem or how to remedy the issue.

 

There should be no play in the CV joints. The inner joint can fall apart inside the boot if you over-extend it. The outer joint would be very hard to break. But it does sound like there is a problem there. If you just hold the axle still in your hand, the wheel will turn because the outer joint doesn't hold?

The problem with what you did-- trying to drive with the wheels of the ground-- is that due to differential action, if there is any slight drag on one wheel (like the brake pads), it will stop and only the other one will turn. A better test is to leave engine off and transmission in park. When you turn one wheel by hand, the other one should turn in the opposite direction. If you hold one wheel still you should not be able to turn the other one, other than the normal slack in the parking mechanism. Or you can just let the rubber meet the road-- set the car down and try to drive it.