Chrysler Repair: drive axle keeps breaking, cv joints, dodge caravan

Question
95 dodge caravan
Wife was in an accident, drive axle on driver side broke. Replaced with new,had alignment done
drove for less then 50 miles and broke again. Replaced again, drove it again for about 80 miles, and broke again. Mechanic looked over the van and is at a stand still over this. Please help. Thanks.  

Answer
Hi Todd,
The match between the axle length and the separation distance between the transaxle output shaft and the wheel housing hub into which it fits at either end is very critical. If you are certain that exactly the correct axle replacement has been purchased (note that this can very depending upon the engine/transaxle for a given model and year) then it would be appropriate to have the suspension measured at a good body shop to see if a change in the specified distance between the output shaft and the hub has changed as a result of the accident. A suspension part may have been bent for example.
The reason this is so critical is that all of the ability for variation in the separation distance caused by the up and down motion of the wheel is done by the cv joints, and there is only a limited amount of such "free play"  in each joint so that if either the axle or the spacing is slightly out of specification, the joint is sure to break under normal road motion.
Roland