CV carnage

[hoophead]

If you all recall, I had a busted boot that I needed to replace before the last DE. Well, when I took off the boot, I decided to clean up the CV joints too, and this is what I found. Rather than risk an exploding CV incident on the track, I ended up buying a whole set of new CVs and driveshafts for both sides, with new bolts all the way around. Made sure the flanges were all clean before installing, cleaned out the bolt holes with solvent, and used blue loctite.

The old joints were the originals from 1978. One of the outer CV joints had been sealed with RTV instead of the correct gasket :roll:

[Lucky]

Self-polishing of the surfaces is normal, but the pitting visible in some of your pics isn't. Looks like you picked a good time to replace them!

[John]

Did you break into my garage and take pics of my old busted CVs? Because that's exactly what they looked like when I took them apart last summer. Obviously, I'll be purchasing brand new ones as well, assuming I ever get around to putting my car back together.

[OldTee]

Swap axels from left to right to change direction, but it may be too late now. Typical problem. Not hard to replace.
ARF

[hoophead]

Swap axels from left to right to change direction, but it may be too late now. Typical problem. Not hard to replace.
ARF

All of the joints had varying degrees of pitting, and what you can't see in the pictures is that there are noticeable grooves worn where the bearings were riding (not just polishing). There was a lot of slop in all of the joints.

I've heard of swapping the inners with the outers, I guess because they have different wear characteristics depending on the location. Kind of like rotating your tires, or flipping your mattress. But you bring up a good point - if you changed sides (or flipped the bearing), then you would be applying pressure on the opposite side of each groove. Now that I think about it, if you flipped the driveshaft around and left it on the same side you would have the same effect - changing the wear surface because of the direction of torque applied, as well as changing the wear pattern because of geometry differences. It's probably a good thing to do every time you change your clutch. I'll have to remember that...

[smdubovsky]

Now that I think about it, if you flipped the driveshaft around and left it on the same side you would have the same effect - changing the wear surface because of the direction of torque applied

If you think about it long enough, just flipping it on the same side doesn't change the torque direction;) Needs to be flipped driver<->passenger.

[hoophead]

If you think about it long enough, just flipping it on the same side doesn't change the torque direction;) Needs to be flipped driver<->passenger.

You're right - it made my head hurt, but I see it now. Even though the inner and outer are turning in different directions relative to the joint, the outside of the CV is driven on the inner joint, and the inside of the CV is driven on the outer joint. Tricky.

So I guess the procedure would be to swap driver's and passenger's side every time you have them out, and maybe swap inners and outers every other time...

[Trak Ratt]

If you think about it long enough, just flipping it on the same side doesn't change the torque direction;) Needs to be flipped driver<->passenger.

You're right - it made my head hurt, but I see it now. Even though the inner and outer are turning in different directions relative to the joint, the outside of the CV is driven on the inner joint, and the inside of the CV is driven on the outer joint. Tricky.

So I guess the procedure would be to swap driver's and passenger's side every time you have them out, and maybe swap inners and outers every other time...Now my head hurts! Simply turning the axle around on the same side changes the direction of rotation and the torque load. Inner flange to outer, outer to inner.
Changing side to side, without flipping movers inner flange to outer but doesn't change to torgue load.
On open difs it might keep the overall wear equal but it's a lot more work and a lot more bolt replacements too (you do replace your bolts like the manual says, right).

[hoophead]

Now my head hurts! Simply turning the axle around on the same side changes the direction of rotation and the torque load. Inner flange to outer, outer to inner.
Changing side to side, without flipping movers inner flange to outer but doesn't change to torgue load.
On open difs it might keep the overall wear equal but it's a lot more work and a lot more bolt replacements too (you do replace your bolts like the manual says, right).

Ok - here's how my hurting head thinks of it: excuse the crappy drawing. The wear areas are marked in red. The key is to think of whether the inner or the outer race is driving the CV. Inner CV's outer race is being turned by the tranny flange, transmitting torque to the inner race. Outer CV's inner race is being turned by the driveshaft, transmitting torque to the outer race, which is connected to the wheel. The rotation is changed with a flip, but the wear areas remain the same because on one side the inner is the driver, and on the other the outer is the driver.