How do my CV's look?

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I'm posting this here, since 993 CV's are very similar, if not identical, to all post-85 911 CV's.

I repacked the driver's side inner CV about five years ago due to a leaky boot. Those ball bearings and CV races/joints looked shiny new and moved effortlessly, even after I removed all the grease.

On the right side, however, saw some blemishes on everything. It all felt smooth as glass, but there were some visual-only signs of wear. Worse yet, I had a hard time getting things back together because it didn't seem to move around so effortlessly with no grease in there. I haven't repacked this one with grease yet, as I want to wait and see if you guys think I need a new CV. It all seemed fine when I played with it before I removed the boot. What say you?

aadrew10 · aadrew10's Garage

Unless they're making that clicking sound I'd run them. To me, nothing looks like a cause for concern. If they do go bad in a year or two it's not a hard job to replace them anyway.

- Andrew

2.70Racer · 12-20-2009, 10:28 PM

Hi Rick,
They don't look bad. I just replaced all 4 CV's in my '85 with 178,000 miles.
The outer race showed some wear both forward and rearward, indicating to me the axles had been reversed once.
Reversed meaning right axle and left axle switching sides.
Inside CV still inside and outside CV still outside.
This is an old trick to get the steel balls working against the fresh unworn part of the outer race.
I did this to my '76 race car several years ago. Working fine.
My real problem is worn rear wheel bearings.
Just a low rumbling noise, seemed fine when rotating a jacked up tire and wheel.
I suspect the bearings are original.

Superman · 07:53 AM

The worst part I see is the spot on the outer race. Not perfect, but I've seen way worse. If you've shown the worst wear spots, then this joint is worn but not unserviceable. In other words, I would feel comfortable reinstalling this joint. One thing guys like to do is flip them over. Put then into postion on the other side of the car. That way, the pressure in the joint will be on a new surface.