I’m still confused. Are you guys saying to swap the parts in each CV itself or swap the whole CV? I have this in my mind now.

L2-L1 T R1–R2

Swap the whole CVs like this…

L1-L2 T R2-R1

Of course this is just for my own curiosity now. I think that when I take them apart and clean them, any CVs that show signs of wear will be replaced.

Parts of one CV (generally) should NOT be interchanged with another. (there can be exceptions to this. . but what a hassle that would be.)

Alll of this gets difficult to explain. . .especially when some are looking for a black&white response on how to handle worn CV's.

CV's are a bearing. As such they die a slow death. The point which you say "these are done" varies. As some hve pointed out, re-lubing these is more work than just calling them "done."

Then you have guys like Superman that, when not bending steel with his bare hands, is 'streching nickles into dollars just for entertainment' (btw, who said that?)

For these guys, I've posted what can be done to squeeze a little more life out of these. The crux of what is being talked about here is getting the balls out of the worn grooves. Installed CV's generally have the inner race pulled towards the axle. So, moving the CV's center-race (axially) to a new position with repect to the outter race, can be achieved a few ways:

You can, as Gunter points out swap the inside and outside CV's (w/o flipping them)

You can, as I have done, flip (and clock 120°) just an inner race. . . .if just the inner race has a bad pit. (same with the outer race)

You can, buy new joints that have no grooves.

YMMV

Right, Ron. I've been asking the grease people about length of time, independent of mileage. For a lot of us, 30,000 miles would take decades. Altho it's prudent to change the grease after a certain length of time -- what is it? 5 years, 10?, 2? No guesses please...

BTW, with all the talk about flipping & etc. ... It might be helpful for someone to post some definitions, or to refer to the Left Outboard end (etc.) when describing how to interchange the assemblies for extra mileage.

Well, first of all, you're going to get guesses here. Like it or not. In fact, I've got another hot tip for you...you're going to see BAD and INCORRECT advice on this Board. Even dangerous advice. You're just going to have to accept that. It comes with the package.

As far as the technical characteristics of grease, I don't know about this. I once asked what grease is, here on this Board, and did not learn much from the responses. As far as I know, grease is thick, slippery stuff. If it is left in a CV joint for a lot of miles, it loses its thickness. Opening a CV joint and having the grease pour out thinner than tranny oil is alarming. I've done it. This is very unscientific so if you want to disregard it, please feel free. I drive my SC 150 miles a day, minimum, during the week, and I would not let CV joints go more than two years without repacking. If I hardly ever drove my car, I'd probably be comfortable letting grease get ten years old. I think the grinding action of the joint and the extreme pressure of that action is what turns grease into mush. Ask some grease scientists. I'm guessing they'll say the same thing, using different words.

As far as reorienting them, I have always operated under the assumption that the surface which is mounted against a flange, needs to be remounted against a flange. I have assumed that the joint needs to go together EXACTLY like it came apart. For this reason, I disassemble them one at a time, keeping track of which balls went where, etc. Then, if I see light wear, I remount the joint on the other side of the car. It does not matter whether it is inboard or outboard, but unless you are willing to mount the non-flange side against a flange upon reinstallation, the joint must be moved to the other side of the car in order to use new wear surfaces on the races. And by the way, for anyone still following my twisted description, the new wear surfaces tend not to be straight across from the old ones. That is, when installed so that the forces are reversed, the balls seem to move along their elongated races, and ride somewhere other than where they were before.

Also, do a Search. Old Bentley manuals have an EXCELLENT section on CV disassembly and repacking. I think Warren (EARLY_S_MAN) posted those pages here once. It is the best description of this procedure I have seen, by far.

Or, in the alternative, go ask the scientists.

I do understand your concern..
and I do think it's a educated question

last year I was hanging with a 911 respected ME for a few days and nights.. he's an older guy who has had a "creative" life.. like making a full complete running engine in HS from bare stock steel and iron.. anyway, I show him my Mobilgrease that I always carry around in the car.. he looks, smells, and stares for awhile.. and we start talking about something else while he's still squeezing and pulling the grease on his finger tips.. a few minutes later he's still doing the squeeze/pull thing and looks at me and explains that the extended length that the grease stayed together before pulling apart was unusual.. that it's a wonderful thing.. that it will keep the grease attached to the sliding surfaces.. that he wants some to take to his shop and experminent with.. so my initial impression was that if this older erxperienced guy is impressed I can relax when using it.

so maybe this can relate to the situation of grease "wearing out" from usage or time. like a touchy feely with new grease compared to old grease? that's all I have Randy..........Ron

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1060885791.jpg

I guess we can agree that he is "into" grease.... I'll have to cruise by his hop next time I go down south. I'll report anything useful I hear from the grease co.s -- in the meantime, I'll probably change it every 5 years no matter what mileage. But that's just a guess on (what I guess is) the safe side.

s'man: I posted a rough defn of grease above -- it's a matrix (usually saponified) that holds an oil close to the working surfaces. Google define xxx is amazingly helpful. For specifics try McGraw-Hill's Dict. of Science or the Road & Track Auto. Dictionary (not always great).

I am shocked -- SHOCKED -- that incorrect opinos could ever be found on this fine board.

Probably better off asking an engineer on this topic rather than a scientist, altho I hope I am wrong in seeming to detect some negativity towards me or towards scientists in your comments.

I agree re "alarming" to have the grease pour out of the jonts. You were apparently a victim of the matrix.

Thx for the tip re the posted manual pages -- I lifted them from the original post about a week or so ago. Others can use that plus keywords in your post to search them out.

Randy, thanks for your charitable response. All Board Members should imagine me smiling as I post. I always am. Let's just say I was in a "rolling the eyes" mood.

Okay, I'll accept that grease has a shelf life, though I do not recall seeing dates on packaging. I'm still suspecting that crushing grease time after time for tens of thousands of miles is probably what causes it to go bad. Usually. I have heard that CV joints are pretty hard on grease and that only the special moly CV brease should be used. That's easy to believe. The edges of six little balls handle hundreds of horsepower, while the tire is hitting road cracks and things.

Good. I generally figure that anyone in the PNW is not nasty.

Someone told me that grease does have a shelf life. I forget who it was tho -- might have been Walt Fricke, a very knowledgable poster on Rennlist, but not sure.

Certainly the crushing (and shear!) will greatly reduce the life of the grease -- also probably pretty hot right at the metal surfaces. I'm trying to find out how the time and mileage (usage) interact.

Yup -definitely a harsh environment.

Grease has the same shelf life as Twinkies....

And the freshness of Twinkies is checked by bouncing them off the floor: The higher the bounce, the fresher! Is anyone voting for Arnold?

his election will recarve big politics in Washington on both sides of the map

One thing to think about doing (or have done) is have your driveshafts crack-checked while they are clean, focusing at each end of the driveshaft where the splines fade into the relief cut of the shaft. Cheap insurance!

In race car land (champ car) we NEVER EVER reverse a driveshaft (halfshaft if you will). As far as CV joints, it depends on who you listen to. Tripod joints are never to be reversed as well.

I would disassemble each CV individually and thoroughly clean to a spotless state. Look for wear grooves or pitting. If all looks good, reuse them.

The very best grease (overkill for this application) to use is Krytox(sp?) Very toxic and nothing cuts it but Freon.

Speaking of grease, my wife watched the movie Grease tonight on TV:)

Good luck!

Chris